(Aug. 16) - A 45-year-old Missouri man died Friday afternoon when a boulder fell off a Colorado mountain and landed on his car, according to the Aspen Daily News.
Tom Murphy was driving his wife and three boys home to Kansas City following a weeklong vacation in Snowmass when the accident happened along Route 82 near Aspen. According to authorities, a boulder the size of a cooler fell off a mountain and crashed through the windshield of the family's SUV, hitting Murphy on the head and knocking him unconscious.
Skip over this content
http://xml.channel.aol.com/xmlpublisher/fetch.v2.xml?option=expand_relative_urls&dataUrlNodes=uiConfig,feedConfig,localizationConfig,entry&id=693170&pid=693169&uts=1250464558
http://www.aolcdn.com/ke/media_gallery/v1/ke_media_gallery_wrapper.swf
A Freak Accident
A Missouri man traveling home from his vacation in Colorado died after a boulder crashed through his windshield on a mountainous road near Aspen Friday. Tom Murphy, 45, was knocked unconscious and his wife managed to take control of the damaged SUV and steer it to safety, with her three boys in the back seat. Above, authorities examine the vehicle.
Heather Rousseau, Aspen Daily News
Heather Rousseau, Aspen Daily News
Murphy, a senior vice president for Sprint, was taken to an area hospital where he was pronounced dead, officials said.
Authorities told a local newspaper that Murphy's wife, Jennifer, managed to wrestle control of the vehicle after the boulder struck it during a steep downhill section of road. She put the SUV, a 2007 Chevy Tahoe, into neutral and navigated it to safety, a police official said.
"She was peeking up over the top to see where she was going and putting her hand back down on the brakes and doing that for a mile and a half," Michelle Haggarty, Jennifer's sister, told The Denver Post.
"She went through a red light at the bottom of the hill ... and the first thing she did was jump out of the car and yell for help," Haggarty said.
After the boulder broke through the windshield, it flew into the back seat, injuring the Murphy's 11-year-old son, Ethan. He suffered abrasions to his right arm and a fractured bone near his eye. He underwent surgery and is expected to make a full recovery.
The other boys, Jack, 8, and Tommy, 6, and their mother were not injured.
Read more on this story on the Aspen Daily News and The Denver Post.
Skip over this content
http://xml.channel.aol.com/xmlpublisher/fetch.v2.xml?option=expand_relative_urls&dataUrlNodes=uiConfig,feedConfig,entry&id=449726&pid=449725&uts=1248731656
http://cdn.channel.aol.com/cs_feed_v1_6/csfeedwrapper.swf
News That Stunned Us
A Preventable Crime? Prosecutors asked that a judge lock up Isaiah M.K. Kalebu, who was out on bail pending trial for charges he threatened to kill his mother, after a suspicious fire at his aunt's house killed two people. Six days later, on July 19, authorities say Kalebu stabbed a 39-year-old woman to death. For that alleged crime, a judge set the bail at $10 million on July 25.
Seattle Police Department / AP
Seattle Police Department / AP
