Sandpoint Man Bounces Back From Death Plunge He Says Seat Belt Saved His Life After Driving Off 150-Foot Embankment

Max Bromberg now believes in miracles, a strong constitution and a sturdy seat belt.

Those were his thoughts on Saturday, less than a day after his pickup skidded on black ice, jumped a guardrail near Hope, Idaho, and tumbled down a 150-foot vertical face before rolling over.

Bromberg then unfastened his seat belt, stepped out of the truck and scrambled back up the embankment with only scratches on his head after the 9:30 p.m. accident Friday.

Saturday morning, he crawled out of bed at 5:30 a.m. - just like always - and fed his dogs.

Not bad for a man of 67.

“I’m not even sore,” he said. “There’s no pain. No aches. Only a spot of blood on the pillow.”

Idaho State Police officers said Bromberg’s seat belt saved him from almost certain death. Bromberg was agreeing even before the 15-second plummet ended.

“I kept telling myself ‘I’ll be OK, I’ve got my seat belt on, I’ve got my seat belt on,”’ he said. “It’s all I remember thinking.”

Bromberg’s wife, Marina Ferrier, said: “It’s a miracle he walked away.”

Ferrier was following him home from a restaurant in her own car, listening to music, when the accident occurred.

The truck “just whipped to the right and went over the guardrail,” she said. “It literally lifted into the air and went over.”

She jumped out and looked over the cliff for her husband. Nothing. She shouted. No reply.

“I felt I was having an hallucination,” she said. “It was a sheer drop into blackness.”

Ferrier stopped another driver. The man began climbing down a less-steep portion of the bank toward her husband. She called police.

“I was OK until 911,” she said. “I started crying and sobbing. I mean, he was right in front of me.”

Minutes later, as emergency dispatchers calmed her, she saw Bromberg - his face covered with blood - crawl over the bank.

“He was fine,” she said. “He was conscious and not in shock. It was amazing.”

Bromberg could make the climb because he’s “always been about 15 years younger than other people my age,” he said.

“You just have to be born to the right parents,” he said. “I expect to be around until I’m 100.”

He went to the hospital for stitches and home to shower. A glance in the mirror reminded the Sandpoint psychotherapist of Norman Bates’ victims in the movie “Psycho.”

Bromberg wasn’t scared until Saturday, when he returned to help wrecking crews find his mangled 1985 Chevrolet, Ferrier said.

“He told me ‘Another 50 feet east and you would have been planning my funeral,”’ she said.

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