Disaster at Jacob Lake

First Security Bank had provided me with an Olds Ciera for making calls, which was available for personal use if I paid for the gas and maintenance. Just before New Years 1986 Ellen, Margaret, Martha and I started at noon to drive to Arizona to see family. The trip was much anticipated since our weather had been three weeks of an inversion of smog/fog.


At Tocquerville we exited I-15 so we could drive past Colorado City where the polygamists were living and then to Jacob Lake and Navajo Bridge. Margaret volunteered to drive so that I could catch a nap. Soon after leaving Jacob Lake and heading down toward the Bridge, she hit some black ice. The car veered right toward a steep drop off; then the car hit some dry pavement and careened left toward the rock wall, hitting it and then sliding across the highway toward the cliff. The car settled just at the edge of the drop off.


But the crash into the rock wall caused Ellen and Margaret to hit the windshield and Martha and me in the back seat onto the back of the front seat. I recall feeling a sharp pain in my lower back which paralyzed me and prevented any monvement. I heard the Ellen and the girls wailing and moaning. I finally opended the back door and rolled out onto the pavement but couldn't get my legs to work. Finally I was able to arise and to appraise the damage. Margaret was almost crying while she wailed, "I'm so sorry, Dad." She observed that Ellen's face was covered with blood. I crawled across the front seat, put my hands on Ellen's head, and blessed her to recover. It would appear that the blood ceased to flow promptly.

The left front of the car was mashed, so there was no moving it from the right lane. One car careened by us to stop down the hill. A person walked back, and around the car, and left without a word. Later we were told it was an Indian who reported no problems. Margaret took a blinking signal up the road a distance to warn oncoming vehicles. About 20 minutes after the accident, another car and trailer almost hit us and then came back to assess our condition. He said that he would call the police, who came in another 20 minutes. The officer called for an ambulance and a wrecker from Kanab, about 40 miles distant. The patrolman asked us many questions, took Margaret's license, and repeatedly talked to Ellen who had a concussion. We were freezing, partly from shock, but Ellen was particularly in a worrisome state. The ambulance arrived after 45 minutes and the wrecker shortly thereafter.

Finally we were loaded aboard the ambulance and headed for Kanab with some polygamist nurses caring for us. It seemed to take a long time but they didn't feel were injured seriously. At the Knab hospital we were examined, x-rays for the girls, and tested for various conditions/ailments. At 11 o'clock we were released to go to a motel for the night.

On Saturday morning I called Brad but couldn't reach him. So I called Dennis to have Brad call, which he did at 9:30 AM. We waited all day for his arrival at 6:30. After a short trip to the garage, we loaded our gear into the Mercury to reach home at 10:45 PM.

As we mused on this episode, we feel most blessed that we sustained only minor injuries. We had many thoughts about our blessings from the Lord, especially that the car had not gone over the cliff.