Women Feel 'Lucky To Be Alive' After Boulders Slam Onto Their Car
MESA COUNTY, Colo. (CBS4) - A rockslide in DeBeque Canyon shut down a portion of Interstate 70 on Sunday. The closure lasted all day Monday.
Video taken moments after the boulders came crashing down shows just how close they came to destroying Jordyn Laney's car.
"Split second decisions like, had I been in the right lane my car probably would have been completely crushed," she said.
Laney was behind the wheel. Her sister, Jailyn, was in the passenger seat and her friend, Tracy Griffin, was in the back seat.
"I felt the brakes and heard their gasps, and when I looked up it was already coming down," Griffin said.
While driving home from Grand Junction, a few miles into the canyon, the trio watched as falling rocks hit the truck in front of them.
"There was just like a cloud of dust, and so I tried to slam on my brakes to stop, but we didn't stop in time," Laney said. "We all just sat there and braced ourselves and all the rocks just came crashing down on the car."
"Honestly I just turned my head like it was going to happen and just looked away," her sister Jailyn said.
The slide was so powerful it pushed their car into the guardrail.
As soon as the car would come to a stop, Laney says she started yelling for everyone to get out of the car.
"There were several big ones like surrounding my car and even looking up when we were getting out, the only thing I could think to do was to run far away because there was still big ones hanging," she said.
Doctors treated Jailyn and Tracy for concussions, but looking at the destruction left behind, they say it is a miracle they walked away at all.
"I was like we are lucky to be alive," Jailyn said.
The eastbound lanes of I-70 will remain closed through Monday night and into Tuesday morning as they work to clear the area of any remaining lose rocks.
There is no set time for reopening the portion of the interstate.