Land Rover crash story from Chile's Patagonian Carretera Austral Back to results

Land Rover crash story from Chile's Patagonian Carretera Austral Land Rover crash story from Chile's Patagonian Carretera Austral

"Up until the week before last I had never tested one of your roll cages, I now have, I am alive and I am very suitably impressed."

This quote from Graham Hornsey, the grateful owner of a Safety Devices roll cage L123, after his Land Rover Defender 110 Hard Top rolled on the Carretera Austral in the XI Region of Chile while towing an ex-military trailer.

Graham's story:

"I am an experienced 4x4 driver and hold a 4x4 Instructor's Certificate, have been driving Land Rovers (civil and military) for 40+ years on 3 continents on all types of surfaces and in all conditions. I have been driving here in the Chilean Patagonia for 22 years.

Up until the week before last I had never tested one of your roll cages, I now have, I am alive and I am very suitably impressed.

The Carretera Austral in the XI Region of Chile is mostly a made up gravel road, sometimes in excellent condition, sometimes not, but all in all, a challenging drive. There is some fantastic scenery and lots of surprises as this type of road changes every kilometre and on an hourly basis due to weather, lack of or recent maintenance and the presence of other users.  Whilst driving the vehicle between 50/55 kilometres per hour, loaded with climbing equipment, rucksacks and rations and towing a 3/4 ton ex-military trailer, also loaded with rucksacks and rations, I had the misfortune to suffer the following:

  • A straight stretch of road with some vicious pot holes which one had to drive round (not unusual).
  • The trailer started snaking by diving into a pot hole and bursting a shock absorber.
  • The vehicle took on the same dynamics as the trailer, causing the vehicle to swerve into the unmade right hand side edge of the road i.e. lots of gravel and rocks etc.
  • On regaining partial control of the vehicle, an attempt was made to exit the unmade edge of the road as the rocks were getting bigger and bigger and the angle steeper and steeper.
  • On exiting this edge, the rear right hand tyre on the vehicle suffered a catastrophic deflation causing the vehicle and trailer to flip big style.
  • The vehicle rolled landing on the right hand point of the external roll cage above the passenger door, continuing to roll (fly!) completely clearing the ground with the left hand side of the vehicle, landing on the same point on the roll cage above the right hand passenger door, then landing on the left hand point of the external roll cage before landing on it's wheels.
  • During this excitement the trailer tried it's best to destroy the vehicle by swinging around and hitting the rear left hand wheel with enough force to bend the left hand rear trailing arm 35 degrees and shift the rear differential 4" off centre on that side.
  • The trailer landed upside down, complete with cargo and still attached to the vehicle via the NATO tow hitch, however, the safety chain and trailer electrics were wound around the tow hitch before being pulled apart, leading me to believe that the trailer either stayed right side up to start with as the vehicle rolled or did a couple of revolutions more than the vehicle...anybody's guess!

Myself and my passenger suffered no injuries of any kind."

At Safety Devices, we were very glad to hear that Graham and his passenger walked away from the accident unhurt.  Many thanks to Graham for sharing his story with us - reaffirmation that even the most experienced drivers exercising extreme driving care can find themselves in a crash situation.

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For more information about Safety Devices Expedition roll cages, contact Chris Platt.
tel +44 (0)1638 560524,
or email expedition@safetydevices.com