Falling Boulder Flips Car; Couple Unhurt

A rush of rocks and dirt turned a Green Valley couple’s world literally upside down Saturday morning when a huge boulder struck their car, causing it to flip over.

“It really shocked me,” said Sheldon Williams, who, along with his wife, Kathy, walked away from the freak crash unscathed.

The couple had been traveling south on San Francisquito Canyon Road in Angeles National Forest south of Lancaster about 5 a.m., when they drove into a landslide loosened by the recent torrential rains that struck Southern California.

“We were driving around a corner when suddenly the mountain started coming across the road,” Williams said.

Williams slammed on his brakes, but was unable to avoid a huge boulder, at least four feet in diameter, that struck the front of his Ford Explorer.

“It just flipped us over,” Williams said. “When they come across at you like that you haven’t got a prayer.”

After determining from his inverted position that both he and his wife were unhurt, Williams kicked open his door and lowered himself to the ground, then helped his wife out.

Though he and his wife escaped the crash without a scratch, the same thing couldn’t be said for the couple’s car. “I don’t think there’s a single body panel that doesn’t have holes in it,” Williams said.

Yet Williams credits the boulder with possibly saving their lives.

“That one rock jumping out in front of us probably saved us from getting hit by a major slide,” he said.