A 14-year-old girl was killed when falling rocks from a mountainside struck her family's vehicle on Monday at Glacier National Park in Montana, officials said.
The girl was visiting the park from Utah with her parents and two other children when rocks hit the top of the vehicle and fatally injured her when they shattered the rear windshield, park officials said in a statement to NBC affiliate KECI in Missoula.
"The park extends its deepest condolences to the girl’s family, and thanks its partner emergency care providers for the significant response,'' park officials said in the statement.
The two adults suffered "significant bruises" and were transferred by ambulance to local hospitals, while the two other children were also taken to the hospital with minor injuries, park officials said in the release.
The rockfall occurred around 7 p.m Monday near the east tunnel on Going-to-the-Sun Road, officials said. The girl, whose name has not been released, was unable to be airlifted after an A.L.E.R.T. air ambulance responded due to her unstable condition.
She died while being transported via ambulance to the hospital.
The rocks were estimated by park officials to have been between fist-sized and 12 inches in diameter and enough to fill the bed of a pickup truck. They fell from an unknown height above the road.
The girl's death marked the first fatal injury from rockfall on Going-to-the-Sun Road since 1996, according to park officials.
The tragic incident happened less than two weeks after a 21-year-old Romanian tourist died when she slipped and fell at a waterfall at Yosemite National Park in California.