SUV cut up & airlifted from creek1 min read

April 10, 2015

Eliot Colsten, owner and operator of Arizona Off-Road Rescue and Towing in Queen Creek, oversees from the ground the airlifted parts of a Toyora 4Runner as a helicopter airlifts it out of Oak Creek to drops it off at the Sedona Airport on Wednesday, April 8. During the heavy flooding at the beginning of March, strong currents carried the vehicle downstream, leaving it stuck in the creek, too far from any road access points. Colsten and his team had cut the vehicle into pieces weighing 950 pounds or less to airlift it out. — Photos by Jordan Reece/Larson Newspapers

When Eliot Colsten heard the story and saw the photos of an SUV that had been swept downstream in Oak Creek, he thought the worst.

“Last year we did our first recovery of a vehicle that involved a fatality,” he said. “When I saw the photos of this incident, my heart fell because I thought the same thing had happened. I was shocked and relieved when I called the insurance company back and she told me everyone was fine.”

Colsten, owner of the Queen Creek-based Arizona Off-Road Rescue and Towing, was brought in to recover a late-model Toyota 4 Runner that was about a half-mile downstream from Oak Creek Cliffs. On March 2, Sedona resident Bryan Davis was attempting to cross a low-laying bridge when the swift running current swept his car into the water.

“Everything was moving so quickly so I knew I had to get out,” Davis said two days following the incident. “I held on for a while but I was worried I would get trapped. After I got out, I pushed myself away from the vehicle as much as I could. From there I swam, crawled and did whatever I could to get to shore, which was about 500 yards from the bridge. In all, I think I was in the water for about 15 minutes.”