Motorist teeters on cliff edge after canyon plunge

[NOW tense]

The incident began about 4:30 p.m. when Lyons call 911

"He told dispatchers he was down a cliff somewhere in the Colorado National Monument and his car had gone off the road," Anzelmo said.

Based on Anzelmo's description of the road and area, a park ranger and volunteer firefighter were able to find Lyons' 1987 Dodge van. They got down the mountainside and found him sitting in the back seat of the van, teetering off a cliff.

snip

"The sense we had last night was that it was intentional," Anzelmo said.

Suicides and suicide attempts have been a problem at the park, where rangers prevent
about a dozen people a year from taking their lives.




http://www.denverpost.com/news/ci_11532751

[Venceremos]

1. My worst nightmare

I'm terrified of heights. Glad he's ok.

[HereSince1628]

10. As a teenager I had recurring nightmares of going over a cliff in a car...backwards

All way before I was old enough to be driving.I must have had that dream dozens of times.

I wonder how many times it'll have me awake tonite?

[lamp_shade]

2. The BACK SEAT?

[NOW tense]

3. There is more in the article

After the rescue, Lyons told authorities he had accidentally driven off the roadway, Anzelmo said. The incident, however, remains under investigation.

"He feels it was an accident going over the edge of Rim Rock Drive," Anzelmo said. "It has all the signs that he intentionally drove off."

There were no brake or skid marks on the roadway, and the tire tracks in dirt off the road ran in a straight line to the edge of the canyon, she said.

"The sense we had last night was that it was intentional," Anzelmo said.

[BrklynLiberal]

5. yeah..like he was trying to tip it off the rock it was caught on. Weird.

[NOW tense]

7. Sometime people get weird in there.

[yellowcanine]

14. He could have ended up there and been afraid to move, not knowing how the car was supported.

After all he did call for help. People who actually want to die do not call for help.

[BrklynLiberal]

4. Holy crap!!! He must be one of the luckiest people in the world.

[file83]

6. Considering it appears he was trying to commit suicide, I'd say so.

If that man doesn't "find Jesus" after this incident, then I don't know what would!

[Rebubula]

8. I found Jesus...

...but I lost him again.

[NOW tense]

9. Maybe a Dingo ate your Jesus?

[struggle4progress]

11. Man who attempted suicide booked in sex assault case

From cliffside to custody: Man who attempted suicide booked in sex assault case
Failed monument suicide attempt leads to arrest of Clifton man in sex assault
By MIKE WIGGINS
Friday, January 23, 2009

A Clifton man who drove his van off a cliff in Colorado National Monument in an apparent suicide attempt is wanted by authorities in the sexual assault of a 4-year-old girl.

A judge Thursday signed a $60,000 warrant accusing Daniel John Lyons, 34, 477 32 1/8 Road, No. 4, of sexual assault on a child, sexual assault on a child in a pattern of abuse and other felony counts.

Mesa County Sheriff’s Department spokeswoman Heather Benjamin said Friday that Lyons will be arrested upon his release from St. Mary’s Hospital.

Lyons’ condition wasn’t available for release to the media Friday. Hospital spokeswoman Samantha Moe said Lyons isn’t listed in the hospital directory. Lyons declined to comment when reached by phone in his room Thursday ...

http://www.gjsentinel.com/hp/content/news/stories/2009/01/23/012409_1A_Monument_folo.html

[tom_paine]

12. I actually almost did go BACKWARDS off not quite a cliff but a STEEP high mountain ridge

that would have meant the same to me and my car or just my car, as a cliff. Plummetting to a fiery destruction like in the movies.

It was in the 1980s in the High Sierra on I-80 in CA. In the middle of a late fall high-mountain snowstorm my car's vacuum system shot totally. I pulled off the road to the shoulder in a place without a guardrail and the shoulder was slick and snow/ice covered.

Not yet realizing what the problem was or how bad it was, and NOT taking into account where my car with it's U'Haul trailer was sitting parked uphill on a shoulder next to a long fall, I was poised for a Darwin Award Moment. I started the car and applied the gas. The engine turned over, but the car had no power and slid backwards a half a foot before I put the brakes on and turned the carr off.

I tried it again, and again...and again...and...again. Every time, the car sputtered and slid backwards a half a foot. In exasperation, I got out after a few tries and stretched my legs. It was only then I noticed the full trailer, now bent perpendicular to the car and roughly a foot or less from the edge and pulling my car backward with it.

Amazingly and stupidly enough, I got back in the car and tried AGAIN, realizing if it didn't work this time, I'd have to wait to be towed. More amazingly and with idiot's luck, the car caught this time, just barely, and pulled me forward up the long mountain slope on I-80 at no more than 30 MPH.

But it saved my bacon from a fate like this. Fool's Luck. Just a young man without enough life experience who almost became a Darwin Award Winner.

I still eventually had to get my car towed, but that's another story.

[yellowcanine]

13. Years ago my brother fell asleep and drove off a mountain pass in Colorado.

Amazingly he was unhurt. The car was kind of messed up though. How do they know this guy didn't fall asleep? When someone falls asleep they often don't brake because they usually don't wake up until they hit something or the vehicle starts bouncing.

[Kashka-Kat]

15. I heard about that road -supposed to be one of the scariest in the world or at least in the US

I mean look at that picture, doesn't look like there's much of a road there.

I wanna go there!!!