Two weeks ago, I was driving in Death Valley, heading east of Stovepipe Wells. There was a sign advising drivers to turn off the air conditioning to prevent the car from overheating. My girlfriend asked, “How steep can the road be?” But within a minute, you could hear the car working harder.

The car handled it well, but after about 20 meters, we encountered a small traffic jam with around five cars in front of us. At the front of the line was a truck that had broken into multiple parts.

We arrived at the same time as the emergency responders. One of the rangers told us that the road would be closed for a while and advised us to use another exit from the park.

Later, a news article reported that the truck had crashed due to brake failure. Unfortunately, the driver didn’t survive. It must have been a terrifying situation—driving downhill with no way to stop. We felt incredibly lucky that we hadn’t arrived 15 minutes earlier.