Celebration flings cars off cliff

Watching fireworks light up the sky is the traditional way many people celebrate the Fourth of July in the US, but not in one Alaska town where crowds gather to watch vehicles being launched off a cliff instead.

The annual event at Glacier View River Retreat near Anchorage sees a number of vehicles with wacky paint jobs, often in patriotic hues to mark the signing of the Declaration of Independence, soar off the 90m cliff before crashing to the ground in spectacular style.

Hands-off systems have been developed for launching the vehicles. One is a railroad track that attaches to the vehicles’ steering arm and the other sees organisers tie the steering wheel straight with ratchet straps before opening the accelerator.  

The tradition began in 2005 and was inspired by one of the organisers getting fed up trying to repair a Volvo car his wife had driven into a moose, reports the Car and Driver website.

Instead of fixing it, the husband put a rock in the boot of the wrecked vehicle and ran it off a cliff. 

Once the celebrations are over, the venue is restored to its pristine state with the damaged cars loaded up onto transporters and taken away to be recycled.

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