ROCKY MOUNTAIN NATIONAL PARK, Colo. (AP) – Park officials say a New Hampshire man died while trying to stop an SUV with his 2 1/2-year-old son inside from rolling down a steep, rocky embankment.

John Whatmough, 32, of Nashua, N.H., died in the accident Monday on Old Fall River Road in the park, not far from the Alpine Visitor Center near the Continental Divide, park spokeswoman Kyle Patterson said in a statement.

Whatmough’s son, who was strapped in a child safety seat, was rescued uninjured by his mother and a bystander after the vehicle came to a stop, Patterson said.

A preliminary report indicated Whatmough and his wife stopped to take pictures at a pullout on the 11-mile one-way unpaved historic road north of Trail Ridge Road when the SUV started rolling backward.

Whatmough opened the front driver-side door and was pulled as the SUV rolled 25 feet down a rocky embankment. He died at the scene.

“He was with the car the whole time,” Patterson said.

Completed in the 1920s, the road was the first to take park visitors over the Continental Divide.

The last motor vehicle fatality on the road happened in 1932, Patterson said.

AP-ES-09-13-05 2209EDT