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2 die in area highway accidents

Motorcyclist killed near Silverton; crash kills motorist

Two people died in crashes on area highways Thursday in a tragic precursor to the Labor Day Weekend.

The first took place at about 1:10 p.m., when a 56-year-old man from DeBeque, 25 miles east of Grand Junction, riding a 2003 Harley-Davidson motorcycle crashed with a 2002 Dodge pickup at mile post 60 on U.S. Highway 550, about 10 miles south of Silverton, Colorado State Patrol Trooper Josh Lewis said. The man, who has not been named, was killed in the crash.

The driver of the pickup was a 48-year-old woman from Howard, a small town on U.S. Highway 50 about 10 miles east of Salida.

No other details have been released about the incident, which occurred just south of the Molas Pass summit, Lewis said. As of Thursday evening, he said family notification had not yet taken place.

The crash forced closure of Highway 550 for about an hour.

Traffic was flowing normally by 2:30 p.m., said Nancy Shanks, communications manager for the Colorado Department of Transportation in Durango.

Shortly before 4 p.m. Thursday, one person was killed and two people were taken to the hospital after a three-vehicle crash on U.S. Highway 160 just east of Cortez, Lewis said.

“There aren’t many details, yet,” Lewis said, “but it appears a car hit a sanitation truck.”

While notifications had not been made by Thursday night in that accident either, Lewis was able to identify the vehicles involved in the collision. They were a 2002 Chevrolet station wagon, a 2008 Mack truck, both registered in Colorado, and a 1999 Ford pickup registered in Arizona.

Both directions of the highway closed shortly after the accident and remained closed until about 6:30 p.m., Lewis said, so the road was closed for about 2½ hours.

The site of the accident is mile marker 43, about three miles east of Cortez.

abutler@durangoherald.com

Aug 28, 2014
Area’s first responders had very busy day


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