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June 16, 2001 By Aspen C. Emmett A head-on collision between a car and a truck on Colorado Highway 666 near the Ute Mountain Ute reservation border claimed the life of one Arizona man and sent three other people to the hospital Friday afternoon. Official details of the crash were not available at press time. However, one woman who arrived on the scene immediately following the accident said there were a total of four people involved in the crash — a woman and a man in each vehicle. Both vehicles were from Arizona. Amy Tibbetts of Flagstaff said she and a fellow rafting guide came upon the crash just moments after it happened. Tibbetts, who has basic first-aid training, said the driver of the older-model Chevy Cavalier was a Native American male in his early 30s. The man was unconscious and stopped breathing, so Tibbetts and another woman dragged the man from the car to administer CPR. However, when paramedics arrived, he was pronounced dead at the scene. The female passenger in the Cavalier, Tibbetts said, sustained serious head injuries and was going in and out of consciousness. She was transported immediately to Southwest Memorial Hospital. The man and woman riding in the older-model Chevy Silverado truck were both alert and able to get out of the vehicle on their own, Tibbetts said. Both were strapped onto gurneys and transported by ambulance to the hospital shortly after the accident. According to scanner reports, police were looking for a 1999 black Honda with Utah plates that was thought to be a factor in the accident. The man killed in the accident was wearing his seat belt, Tibbetts said. None of the parties had been identified as of press time Friday. Three ambulances, one fire truck, two Colorado State Patrol troopers, and several members of the Montezuma County Sheriff’s Office, the BIA and Cortez Rescue responded to the scene. Traffic was backed up for more than a mile in each direction on Highway 666, as the scene blocked both lanes of the narrow highway from 3 p.m. until after 4. |
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Copyright © 2001 the Cortez Journal.
All rights reserved. |
