Four people who were inside an SUV that rolled over five times — in a wild crash caught on dashcam video — were lucky to be alive, according to authorities in northern Kentucky.
Filmed by a big-rig’s front-facing camera on Interstate 75 in Grant County (map), south of Cincinnati, the crash prompted a safety warning from local authorities.
The video shows a Mercury Mountaineer drift from the No. 1 to the No. 3 lane, nearly hitting another vehicle, then apparently losing control and entering the right-hand shoulder next to a big-rig.
At that point, the vehicle collides with the banked dirt shoulder and turns over — five times.
Three bodies can be seen flying out of the SUV and into the air. The truck lands on top of one of them, a 5-year-old boy, whose legs were broken by the impact, according to television station WCPO in Cincinnati, which covered the crash Thursday.
The passengers were not wearing seat belts, according to local authorities. Investigators were surprised anyone survived, WCPO reported.
The softness of the ground may have contributed to the nonfatal landings, according to Deputy Scott Conrad of the Grant County Sheriff’s Department.
A 16-year-old boy stayed inside the vehicle during the crash, though he too was not wearing a seatbelt.
The crash remained under investigation and the 23-year-old driver has not been charged, WCPO reported.
The incident occurred Feb. 12, according to a post on the Sheriff’s Department’s Facebook page.