Pickup teeters at ravine’s edge; driver rescued

WILLOW — A 72-year-old driver trying to avoid rear-ending a motor home Saturday on the Parks Highway wound up with his pickup on the edge of a ravine, according to Alaska State Troopers.

“Well, I was driving down the road minding my own business and following this damn motor home and out of nowhere he slammed on his brakes and I had to go somewhere,” Stanley Boley, of Willow, said when reached at his home Monday.

According to troopers, Boley steered his 1972 Ford pickup into the ditch, slid sideways, and came to rest on the edge of a ravine, “causing the unstable vehicle to rock back and forth.”

The trooper press statement had no identifying information for the motor home or its driver.

“Boley was trapped inside the vehicle and unable to climb out due to the risk of the vehicle rolling over and into the ravine,” troopers report.

Troopers say they hooked a chain to the frame of the pickup. They pulled it taught with a trooper Expedition as a means to keep the pickup from rolling over while they waited for medics and rescue technicians to arrive.

Boley said he laid in the pickup waiting for awhile.

“It seemed like an hour but it might have been 30 minutes,” Boley said. He said medics and rescue techs personnel out his windshield.

He wished they would have waited for a tow truck to come and right his pickup instead.

“I could’ve just laid there for another 10 minutes,” he said, once it was righted, he figured, he could’ve just opened the door and stepped out.

Troopers report that once the pickup was righted it was drivable but had $1,000 damage.

Boley was wearing his seatbelt, according to trooper reports. He said he got a little banged up in the accident but declined medics’ invitation to take him to the hospital.

“I got a dark spot on my left biceps and a spot on my left thumb,” Boley said. “I got some sore ribs that showed up later but they’re not broke or nothing, they’re just sore.”

Contact Andrew Wellner at andrew.wellner@frontiersman.com or 352-2270.