Slippery roads leave two dead in accident

Slippery roads leave two dead in accident

Dec. 1, 2001

By Janelle Holden
Journal staff writer

Friday’s winter storm proved fatal for two Ute Mountain Ute Tribal elders traveling from White Mesa to Towaoc early yesterday morning.

Blanding resident Annie Rabbitt was driving east on County Road G just past Sand Canyon at 5:50 a.m. when she lost control of the Chevrolet Astro van and skidded clockwise off the left side of the icy road. The van then rolled down a steep embankment, according to the Colorado State Patrol.

Passengers Jessie Whiskers from Towaoc and Barbara Morris from White Mesa were thrown from the vehicle through a side window. Morris, 59, was pronounced dead at the scene, and Whiskers, 68, pronounced dead at the hospital.

According to Southwest Memorial Hospital spokesperson Jenis Tucker, Rabbitt, 57, was treated for abrasions and contusions at the hospital and discharged.

Pearl Wells, a 69-year-old Blanding resident, was a passenger in the front of the van. Tucker said Wells had sustained a pelvic fracture and head injury, and was airlifted Friday morning from Southwest Memorial Hospital to San Juan Regional Medical Center in Farmington, N.M. As of Friday afternoon, Wells was listed in critical condition.

Rabbitt and Wells were wearing seatbelts at the time of the accident, and were not thrown from the van, which is owned by the Ute Mountain Ute tribe.

The van was only traveling 25 mph in a 40 mph speed zone when the accident occurred, the state patrol report said.

Winter weather has proved treacherous for county drivers. Since the Thanksgiving snow storm more than 30 accidents have been recorded in Montezuma County.

A Wednesday accident on State Highway 145 has yet to be explained, however. Ruby Mosher of Dolores was charged with careless driving causing bodily injury and no proof of insurance after she caused a head-on collision with another vehicle by driving on the wrong side of the road. Mosher declined to tell police why she was driving on the other side of the road, claiming it wasn’t her fault, according to Colorado State Trooper David Van Bibber.

The latest storm caused only minor problems for other drivers, but enough to keep law enforcement and tow trucks busy. The CSP reported it responded to five instances where vehicles slid off the road, and the Cortez Police responded to a minor accident when a car hit a median and then a light pole on Thursday night.

"We haven’t had anything major," said Cortez Police Chief Roy Lane. "Tonight will be a bad night, ‘cause it will melt a little and then it’ll freeze and we’ll have black ice. Tonight will probably be the tell-tale," he warned.

CSP Trooper Don Sheppard warns that driving too fast for conditions is the most common cause of crashes during inclement weather.

As of Friday afternoon, Cortez had 5 inches of snow on the ground, with a total of 7.1 inches since snow first began to fall on Nov. 23. Another storm is coming in on Sunday, according to local meteorologist Jim Andrus. Snow should begin to fall again late Sunday and into Tuesday.

Sunny weather is expected for Saturday, however. Temperatures could reach back up into the 40s before dropping into the 30s on Monday and Tuesday. Nighttime temperatures fell only to 24 degrees on Thursday evening, but have been in the single digits since Thanksgiving.