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Sept 4, 2001 by Aspen C. Emmett Three motorcyclists were killed over the Labor Day weekend this year and several others were injured in motorcycle-related crashes as of Monday afternoon, according to Colorado State Patrol Sgt. Ted Griffith. All three fatalities were the results of single-vehicle crashes in which no one was wearing a helmet. With approximately 30,000 motorcyclists in the area for the annual Four Corners Iron Horse Motorcycle Rally, serious traffic accidents seam to be inevitable. Last year, there were six rally-related fatality wrecks, three of which were the result of accidents caused by other motorists. Forty-five-year-old Leslie Muir of Smithfield, Utah, sustained massive head injuries when she was ejected from the back of a 1997 Harley Davidson driven by Fred Smith, 51, on Colorado Highway 550 near Molas Pass, according to a police report. Smith, also of Smithfield, sustained a broken left arm. The two were reportedly southbound and rounding a left-hand curve in the road late Friday afternoon when they ran off the right side and down a short embankment. Muir collided with a tree and was transported to Mercy Medical Center in Durango, where she died nearly four hours later. Smith was estimated to be driving at the 40-mph speed limit at the time of the crash. A few hours later near Bayfield, 49-year-old Joe King of Los Alamos, N.M., was fatally wounded when he was ejected from his Harley Davidson motorcycle under similar circumstances. King was westbound on U.S. Highway 160 and rounding a left curve when he traveled off an embankment and collided with rocks. The bike overturned several times and came to rest on top of a fence after ejecting King, the sole passenger. King died at the scene from massive chest injuries. According to a report, he was estimated to be traveling 75 mph in a 60-mph speed zone. Forty-eight-year-old Frederick McCaleb of Lubbock, Texas, died early Saturday morning from head injuries sustained in a motorcycle crash Thursday evening. McCaleb was westbound on U.S. Highway 160 near Bayfield when his Harley Davidson bike traveled off the right side of the road for approximately 298 feet before traveling back onto the highway, skidding onto its side and ejecting McCaleb. The biker was thrown 26 feet and then slid for an additional 86 feet before coming to a rest on the shoulder of the road. The motorcycle slid on its right side for 176 feet before coming to a stop, according to a report. McCaleb was transported to Mercy and later air-lifted to St. Vincent’s Hospital in Santa Fe, N.M., where he died from extensive head injuries two days following the crash. Alcohol was suspected in all three of the accidents but official blood-test results were not back yet, according to an article in the Durango Herald. Griffith said there were several other motorcycle accidents over the weekend but there was not an official tally for the Labor Day weekend because the holiday crashes were to be calculated through 3 a.m. this morning. "There were several other accidents in Montezuma County over the weekend, but I don’t know the extent of them," he said. Griffith commented that the majority of traffic accidents likely involved rally-goers because of the sheer numbers of bikes on the roads. "Given the timing and the vicinity, they were probably related to the rally." |
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Copyright © 2001 the Cortez Journal.
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