Four people in a pick-up truck plunged 200 feet off a cliff near Apache Junction early Tuesday morning.
Emergency crews faced a daunting task extracting one of the victims, a woman in her 20s who suffered severe head and facial injuries.
State Route 88 near Fish Creek Hill is a treacherous, windy road that connects Apache Junction with Roosevelt Lake.
“Anytime that you send a car over the side of the cliff with those kinds of steep slopes, it’s going to be pretty dramatic,” said Apache Junction Fire District’s David Montgomery.
Montgomery said one of the victims was able to walk 10 miles to Tortilla Flat to call for help. When emergency crews arrived, they used a rope pulley system to pull the injured woman out of the canyon.
All four passengers were taken to the hospital in stable condition. The Department of Public Safety is investigating.
There are no guardrails at the site of the crash, according to the Arizona Department of Transportation.
View more photos of the rescue from the Apache Junction Fire District Flickr account.