Log In


Reset Password
News Education Local News Nation & World New Mexico

Texas man dies in Red Mountain crash

El Paso teenager had been missing since last week
A Colorado Department of Transportation webcam captured this image of the closed section of road Wednesday morning. Red Mountain Pass reopened around 6:30 p.m. Wednesday.

Red Mountain Pass reopened after a closure for most of Wednesday to allow a mountain rescue team from Ouray County to recover the body of a man who was killed when his vehicle went into a precipice near mile marker 89 on U.S. Highway 550 south of Ouray.

“The coroner has identified the victim as Edgar Vargas,” said Marti Whitmore, a spokeswoman for the Ouray County.

Television station ABC 15 Arizona reported that a Mesa, Arizona, family had been searching for Vargas, 18, since Thursday, when he last talked to family members by telephone from a gasoline station in Broomfield, New Mexico.

Vargas, from El Paso, Texas, was driving a red 2005 Ford F-150 pickup from El Paso to Grand Junction to attend the prom of a friend.

A Colorado State Patrol news release said Vargas was northbound when he lost control of his pickup, crossed into the southbound lane and ran off the shoulder. The vehicle traveled down an embankment and then over the lip of a ridge to fall to the floor of the canyon.

It’s not known when the accident happened. The investigation continues.

Red Mountain Pass was closed at 8:30 a.m. and remained closed until about 6 p.m.

Whitmore said the Vargas vehicle went off the highway near the point where a Danish man was killed in February when his vehicle tumbled several hundred feet into the Uncompahgre River.

daler@durangoherald.com



Reader Comments