Day-trippers escape as boulders fall around their car

An Australian family had an amazing escape when a boulder slide slammed into their car, almost forcing it over the edge of a cliff at Springbrook yesterday.

Michael and Jodie Johnston and their two young children were travelling towards Springbrook, a hinterland hiking area popular with day-trippers, about 10am when their Ford Territory was hit by a wall of falling rocks and debris.

Boulders weighing several tonnes slammed into - and over - the car, pushing it off the road and towards the edge of a cliff.



Mrs Johnston said the surge of falling earth and rocks came from nowhere. "We were just driving and saw a couple of rocks on the road and then all of a sudden the whole side of the road came tumbling down," she said. "It was like the earth just fell on us, or like a cement truck dumping its load right on top of us."

The Johnstons then had to get themselves and their children out of the car before any further slide knocked the vehicle off the edge of a cliff.

Mrs Johnston said, her two children, five-year-old Tiffany and two-year-old Lukas, remained calm throughout the tense ordeal. "We probably all should have been freaking out," she said. "I can't believe how amazingly calm we were through it.It could have been horrific. We were very, very lucky."

With news video. There's a photo gallery here.