Poor Ford Bronco Submerged in Frozen River After Major Driver Error
The owner of this Ford Bronco thought they were crossing an ice-covered road before things went horribly wrong.
It’s no secret that the new, sixth-gen Ford Bronco is a highly capable machine. Ford went to great lengths to make its reborn Bronco quite the formidable off-road rig, and the results speak for themselves. However, there are still some things that even the Ford Bronco can’t do – like ford a half-frozen river, as one Kentucky-based owner recently discovered after choosing to ignore a road closed sign. Photos of the aftermath made their way to the Bronco 6th Gen Facebook page, and the rest, as they say, is internet history.
Details from that post are scant, but The Drive was able to speak to a Bronco 6th Gen administrator and owner of a nearby marina, Dave Landwehr, who shed a little light on the impromptu swim this Bronco and its owner embarked on in the Ohio River just east of Cincinnati. Several inches of snow and ice had fallen in the days leading up to the incident in that area, which prompted the Bronco owner to ignore a road-closed sign, all while the river had risen several feet. Thus, the low-lying, ice-covered path crossing the river looked deceivingly safe to traverse.
“The ice that was on the road rose with the river…everything rose,” Landwehr explained. “The river sat there for a day or so at that elevation, and froze to the existing road.” Thus, the driver likely assumed that the road was closed due to ice, which would present no problem for his highly-capable Bronco. Instead, the SUV made it a short distance out on the ice-covered river before breaking through.
“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.” Luckily, the two occupants of the vehicle were able to swim to shore. “They are ok,” Landwehr said. “They just got wet and cold, but [it] was not far or too deep.”
As for the Bronco, well, it didn’t fare so well. Several days passed before it was able to be pulled from the frosty river, and the SUV was submerged almost completely. The flooded Bronco is essentially ruined, though thanks to the insane demand surrounding Ford’s beloved model, we wouldn’t be surprised to see this one pop up at auction in the near future.
Photos: Dave Landwehr
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