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2 weekend rollovers result in injuries

3 people spend night outdoors after accident in North Routt

Mike Lawrence
Three people, including a small child, were not seriously injured after their car rolled off the road in North Routt County and caused them to spend Saturday night outdoors, a Colorado State Patrol trooper said Sunday.
Courtesy Photo
Trooper Brady Kobus said an Aurora man was driving a four-door sedan with his girlfriend and his 3-year-old son on Routt County Road 129 north of Columbine on Saturday night, when the man drove off the road near the road’s fork with Forest Service Road 550 at about 10 p.m.

— Three people, including a small child, were not seriously injured after their car rolled off the road in North Routt County and caused them to spend Saturday night outdoors, a Colorado State Patrol trooper said Sunday.

Trooper Brady Kobus said an Aurora man was driving a four-door sedan with his girlfriend and his 3-year-old son on Routt County Road 129 north of Columbine on Saturday night when the man drove off the road near the road’s fork with Forest Service Road 550 at about 10 p.m.

“He drove straight off the road and rolled his vehicle going down an embankment,” Kobus said.



He said the man and his girlfriend were released Sunday from Yampa Valley Medical Center after treatment for minor injuries. The child was not injured, Kobus said. He said the man was cited for careless driving.

Kobus said Colorado State Patrol wasn’t notified of the accident until 6 a.m. Sunday. Kobus did not have names of the people involved.



Steamboat Springs resident Gary Osteen said he was the first person on the scene. Osteen said he was driving to work at Three Forks Ranch in Savery, Wyo. — Osteen guides fishing trips there — when he saw the Aurora man waving him down on C.R. 129. Osteen said the man had crawled out of the driver’s side window of the upside-down car.

Osteen said he walked with the man to the car and heard voices inside from the woman and child. Osteen then left the scene to get within cell phone range and call 911, he said.

“North Routt (Fire Protec­tion District crews) responded probably within 15 minutes of the call,” Osteen said. “They were right on top of it.”

North Routt fire district Chief Bob Reilley said he was out of town for much of Sunday and did not have further information about the accident.

Osteen said North Routt resident Keith Heiner, who lives nearby, brought blankets for the passengers and a chainsaw to cut away brush and increase access to the vehicle. Osteen said all three people in the crash were cold after their night outdoors, but given the circumstances, could have been in much worse shape than they were.

“That was, I’m sure, a very serious situation for them,” Osteen said. “They’re very blessed.”

Another rollover occurred at about noon Sunday, Kobus said, on Forest Service Road 60, north of Dry Lake Campground in the Buffalo Pass area. Kobus said a Milner man was the only occupant of the vehicle that rolled. No other vehicles were involved. Kobus said the man was taken to Yampa Valley Medical Center with injuries that were of an unclear extent but not life-threatening. Kobus said alcohol appears to have been a factor in the crash.

He did not have the man’s name or information about what charges he could face.

— To reach Mike Lawrence, call 871-4233 or e-mail mlawrence@steamboatpilot.com


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