A pickup driver suffered minor injuries after plunging 200 feet off Red Mountain Pass on Oct. 9, according to the Ouray County Sheriff’s Office.
The vehicle, a Ford F-150, rolled 200 feet into the Uncompahgre Gorge near mile markers 88 and 89, according to the Ouray County Sheriff’s Office.
The driver was the sole occupant of the vehicle, the Ouray County Rescue Team said.
The driver failed to maintain his lane, causing the truck to travel off the right shoulder and down a cliff, according to Colorado State Patrol. The vehicle upside down in the riverbed.
The Sheriff’s Office said the driver was out of his vehicle “collecting belongings” at the bottom of the gorge when emergency responders arrived. The items had likely been thrown from the vehicle during the crash.
The rescue shut down Highway 550 for about eight hours on Oct. 9, according to State Patrol.
State Patrol said the incident remained under investigation, and the driver’s name had not been released as of Tuesday.
Two people died in a similar incident on the same stretch of highway in early August.
Louis Michael, 42, of Farmington, and his passenger Leoba Valdez, 79, of Aztec, died of blunt-force trauma, according to an Ouray County coroner’s report. They drove off the road near mile marker 88 in a Honda Civic on Aug. 5. The vehicle tumbled 320 feet down the mountain and landed upside down in the canyon, according to State Patrol.
A third passenger, a juvenile girl, was taken to the hospital with unspecified injuries after being trapped in the car for several hours.
The coroner’s report said that Michael had 40 times the legal limit of THC in his system at the time of the crash.
epond@durangoherald.com
