A truck driver is lucky to be alive after taking a massive tumble off the side of a mountain in Colorado. His truck became unrecognizable as a twisted pile of metal after bouncing off rocks during a 300-foot drop. 

Truck driver falls 300 feet off Colorado Million Dollar Highway 

It might be time to consider adding guardrails to the Million Dollar Highway or on U.S. 550 on the north side of Red Mountain Pass. It’s an area where three people have unfortunately lost their lives this year. 

But after a pickup truck fell roughly 300 feet off the side of the mountain between mile markers 88 and 89, he was miraculously able to walk away. The man accidentally ran off the road and hit the canyon floor. 

Then, emergency responders had to develop a plan to at least recover the driver. The Ouray-based team called for help from the Ouray Mountain Rescue Team to get down to the man. 

According to CBS News, they used a technical rope system to bring the driver back up to the pavement. Then he was assessed for minor injuries. It’s unclear what will happen to his truck. 

However, it’s hard to determine what make and model it is at this point. It looks like someone tried to crush it into a ball. 

This section of the highway doesn’t have guardrails to allow snow plows to regularly push large amounts of snow off the edges during the colder months. But recently, a guardrail on the other side of the pass stopped a minivan from dropping about 800 feet.