A Ford Bronco met its unfortunate fate after its driver tried to drive across a frozen river on the night of Sunday, Feb. 6 in Kentucky. The driver drove past the sign, “road closed” did not seem to know that there was a river ahead of him due to heavy snowfall. Upon entering the river, the truck sank up to the roof after breaking through the ice. The vehicle stayed there for three days and is now useless.
This happened in the Ohio River, east of Cincinnati, Ohio. An observer notified Dave Landwehr, who administers the Facebook group BRONCO 6th Gen.
Landwehr indicates that the driver likely ignored the “road closed” sign because of recent weather conditions in the area.
“The ice that was on the road rose with the river… everything rose,” Landwehr told The Drive. “The river sat there for a day or so at that elevation and froze to the existing road.”
The driver might have thought that the road was closed just because of ice. “It sunk almost all the way over his top,” Landwehr said. “They could not get their doors open because of the ice, so they had to pull the top back and get out… though the top.” After escaping the vehicle, the two passengers were reportedly able to swim to shore and receive help from a nearby apartment complex. “They are ok,” Landwehr says. “They just got wet and cold, but [it] was not far or too deep.”
To evade retrieval expenses for the vehicle, the owner allegedly elected to wait for the flooded Ohio river to lower, at which point the truck would be on solid ground and pulled out more easily. The waterway, however, sitting around six feet higher than it usually does in that area, didn’t lower for a few days.
The car was totaled with the interior being entirely destroyed. It couldn’t be ascertained specifically which engine the truck is equipped with, but it’s clearly a Big Bend machine with an automatic transmission.
The passengers are said to be fine though.
