Since the dawn of man, we have been trying to jump cars long distances. It’s always been to varying degrees of success. On one hand, we have the Duke boys. On the other is that dude who launched and destroyed a black first-generation Ford Raptor. Somewhere in the middle we have this fella – known as Caz on Instagram. You see, Caz decided to jump his 2021 third-gen Raptor. That’s not terribly uncommon, but the result was. He literally broke his back.
Speaking with Jalopnik, he broke down exactly what happened at Virginia International Raceway’s dirt track. Apparently, there was an event being held by a group called Off-Road Revolution. There were about 50 Raptors and 10 TRX’s, according to Caz.
“There [were] three of us with 2021 Raptors running as a group, pushing more each jump to see what the trucks could handle. Last convo I had with one of the guys he said he went 50 and it looked pretty standard. I aimed for 60 but it may have gotten beyond that as I wasn’t looking down at speedo. Got a nice smooth jump but unfortunately I landed a perfect pancake / all 4 wheels at the same time,” Caz wrote.
Caz went on to say that his T12 vertebra broke into three pieces, which really is not what you want under any circumstances.
“Worst pain I’ve ever felt in my life,” he wrote. “Literally threw my truck in park and dove onto the ground trying to straighten my back.”
Despite seeing all this, another nearly identical Raptor driver decided to do the same launch and had a similarly hard landing. According to Caz, that driver was also taken to the hospital by ambulance and has a hairline fracture, but they won’t need any surgery.
Caz says he’s scheduled to have fusion surgery on his back this Wednesday. After that, there will likely be a bit of a recovery period.
Remarkably, the truck itself was completely unharmed, according to Caz.
“[E]veryone said my truck appears to be undamaged. I haven’t seen it [because] I’ve been in a hospital bed since [Saturday] afternoon, but my dad’s been driving it and he says d there’s nothing obviously wrong,” he said. “No lights or noises.”
He says he doesn’t blame Ford or their marketing for the accident, because the truck handled it.
“My body was the weak link,” he wrote with a “ha” at the end.
Caz says the moral of the story is just because the truck can take it, doesn’t mean your body can.
“I knew there was a chance to damage my truck offroad but I never in a million years thought about me being physically harmed,” he said. “Definitely a wake up call.”