Advertisement

Prius rides on a wave of mud in Burbank during storm in video shared online

Share

A video taken during Tuesday’s rainstorm in Burbank of a car speeding down a hillside street while surrounded by a torrent of mud and water had garnered more than 62,000 views on social media as of Thursday afternoon.

The video was uploaded to Instagram by Burbank Firefighters Local 778 with the caption “Urban Prius bobsledding in #Burbank!” With its headlights and windshield wipers on, the vehicle could be seen in the 26-second video going down Country Club Drive, where it was surrounded by a rush of mud, water and debris.

The firefighters union could not be reached for comment.

The car’s driver, Desionne Franklin, told KTLA-TV that he never experienced anything like Tuesday’s storm. A native of Dallas, Texas, Franklin took to his Instagram account earlier that morning to post a video of the rushing water prior to his wild ride.

“Man, look at California,” he said in the video.

Several hours later, he received word that the storm’s condition had worsened, and the neighborhood was being evacuated, according to KTLA.

Franklin and his girlfriend soon packed into the Prius.

"When I got halfway down the hill, I just felt this burst of water hit the back of the car,” he told KTLA.

The Prius then hydroplaned down the hill for a short while before Franklin was able to regain control of the car and make it to safety.

Franklin’s vehicle was able to escape the rushing debris flow with just scratches and bumps.

“I just got pushed down the side of hill by a wall of water and mud,” he said in a separate Instagram video. “Rocks flowing, mud flowing …everywhere, barely made it out.”

Not every vehicle was able to escape the rain relatively unscathed. A video shared earlier on Tuesday by the Burbank Police Department shows two cars being battered by a mudslide at the bottom of Country Club Drive.

andy.nguyen@latimes.com

Twitter: @Andy_Truc


UPDATES:

5:10 p.m.: This article was updated with remarks the car’s driver, Desionne Franklin, made to KTLA-TV Channel 5.

This article was originally published at 12:25 p.m.

Advertisement