UPDATE: The 14-year-old girl who was killed by falling rocks has been identified via a GoFundMe page.
In the post, Ayva Sparrow is described as a person who “could light up any room she entered with her contagious personality.” The post continues, “Ayva loved helping her dad with Traegar trade shows. Reading was her favorite activity. She loves cats, her dog, friends and most of all her little sister.”
WEST GLACIER, MT – A 14-year-old girl from Utah died Monday after falling rocks struck the vehicle she and her family were in while on vacation in Montana.
In a press release issued by Glacier National Park, the car was traveling along Going-to-the-Sun Road around 7 p.m. Monday when the rockfall occurred.
The rocks hit the top of the vehicle and shattered the rear windshield, fatally injuring the girl and also injuring her parents and two other children in the vehicle.
The rocks that hit the vehicle were between fist-sized and 12 inches in diameter. The park estimates that the amount of debris could have filled the bed of a pickup truck. The rocks fell from an unknown height from the mountains above the road.
A.L.E.R.T. air ambulance responded, but was unable to airlift the girl because of her unstable condition. Flight paramedics traveled with her via ground ambulance to Kalispell, MT, but she died while being transported to a local hospital.
The girl’s parents suffered significant bruises and the two other children in the vehicle had minor injuries, they all went by ambulance to the hospital.
Going-to-the-Sun Road was closed at the East Tunnel for approximately three hours on Monday night while the park road crew cleared the rocks and a tow truck removed the vehicle.
The park will release the girl’s name and hometown once family notifications have been completed.
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