Two members of a family vacationing from Texas were killed and two others were injured Tuesday evening in an ATV crash north of Silverton, officials said Wednesday.
The San Juan County Sheriff’s Office posted on its Facebook page that Gary Adkinson, who was driving, and his wife, LaNita, were flown by helicopter to Mercy Regional Medical Center in Durango with extensive injuries. They were later taken to St. Anthony’s Hospital in Denver.
The Adkinson’s son, Bryson, 26, and their son-in-law, Ryan King, 35, were pronounced dead at the scene, the Sheriff’s Office said.
The Nachogdoches, Texas, family was in Silverton on vacation. The wives of Bryson Adkinson and King and three small children were not involved in the crash.
“The ladies described their husbands as loving fathers and are praying for the recovery of their parents,” the Sheriff’s Office wrote.
According to an initial investigation, around 5:15 p.m. on Tuesday, the off highway vehicle the family was in experienced transmission problems and Gary Adkinson, operating the vehicle, attempted to coast down Corkscrew Pass.
The Sheriff’s Office said the brakes failed just before County Road 110, “causing the vehicle to leave the roadway at a high rate of speed and roll down a steep embankment approximately 75 feet.” near the Environmental Protection Agency’s water-treatment plant at Gladstone.
