A 39-year-old Ridgway man whose vehicle went 370 feet off U.S. Highway 550 and down an embankment near Red Mountain Pass was in stable condition Monday morning, according to a spokesman at St. Mary’s Medical Center in Grand Junction.
On Sunday afternoon, Matthew Pratt was traveling south in a Mazda RX7 when he lost control of the vehicle near mile marker 89 and went off the steep, mountainous highway.
Pratt was able to get himself out of the car, according to Colorado State Patrol Cpt. Adrian Driscoll. He was then airlifted by helicopter to St. Mary’s with serious bodily injury.
Driscoll did not have further information on the crash Monday morning.
Lisa Schwantes, spokeswoman for the Colorado Department of Transportation, said the highway closed around 11 a.m. Sunday and reopened about 12:45 p.m., with possible closures Monday morning as crews recovered the vehicle.
However, Stuart Armstrong, owner of Telluride Towing, told The Durango Herald on Monday morning that he and his crews were able to retrieve the car on Sunday night.
Armstrong said he and three employees started the operation about 5 p.m. Sunday, and were able to haul the car 370 feet up the embankment and finish up a little after 8:30 p.m.
Armstrong said it’s actually easier for that kind of operation to be conducted at night.
“You don’t have the traffic,” he said.
Armstrong said the car went off the road and likely traveled a minimum of 50 to 70 feet in the air before it hit the ground and rolled down a scree field, an area of broken rock fragments that has accumulated through periodic rock fall.
“He went a long ways before he hit, then started tumbling,” Armstrong said.
jromeo@durangoherald.com
