July 27, 2004

Rollover claims two lives

A vacationing couple from Missouri was killed Tuesday evening when their Jeep slipped off Black Bear Pass and rolled more than 900 feet down a steep slope. Both were pronounced dead at the scene at 7 p.m., according to a report from the Colorado State Patrol.

The victims, Vern A. Huntington, 50, and his wife, Susan A. Huntington, 51, of Saint Peters, Mo., slid off Black Bear Pass road while taking a left hand turn on one of the switchbacks above the top of falls at about 4:15 p.m., police said. The couple was descending the steep mountain road in a soft-top Jeep Wrangler when the accident occurred. Neither was wearing a seatbelt and both were eventually ejected from the vehicle, suffering multiple traumatic head and chest injuries, according to a report from county coroner Bob Dempsey.

Police said there was no clear cause for the accident, though a recent rainstorm made the road somewhat slick Tuesday afternoon.

The actual cause, "is probably just always going to be a guess," said Mike Westcott of the San Miguel County Sheriff's Office, who responded to the scene.

Westcott said the first call about the accident came into the Sheriff's Office a little after 4 p.m. from another driver on the road who had seen the Jeep roll by in his rearview mirror.

Police were on the scene by just after 4:30 p.m., and the Search and Rescue team was scrambled to help locate and treat the victims.

Because neither passenger was in the vehicle when police arrived, an immediate search began for accident victims, while rescuers waited for confirmation on how many people were in the Jeep when it crashed, Westcott said.

Vern Huntington was found where he was ejected from the vehicle about 100 feet from where it left the road; Susan was later found to have been ejected about 50 feet from where it came to rest, on its roof and back on the road approximately 930 feet down the hill, according to police and coroner's reports. There were no other travelers with the Huntingtons.

The Jeep was "totally crushed," according to Dempsey's report.

SAR team leader Eric Berg said a lack of information on how many passengers were in the vehicle originally complicated operations for the rescuers, who performed a "safe but aggressive grid search," of the area, looking for victims.

Berg said his volunteer rescue team worked valiantly on the slick hillside Tuesday in what were considered extremely tough circumstances.

"They performed magnificently, as usual," he said.

Though Black Bear Pass road is in places exceedingly steep and narrow, especially in a pitched rock section above Ingram Falls referred to as "The Stairs," fatal car accidents on it are rare, and there has not been a fatality in recent memory, police said.

In an unrelated but simultaneous incident Tuesday, a trio of hikers - two women and a child - had to be airlifted by helicopter from the upper Bilk Creek Basin after misjudging their distance from the Wilson Mesa trailhead, becoming disoriented and getting caught in a thunderstorm, Berg said.

One of the women was a visitor from New York City, and the second woman and the child were from Nashville, Tenn., he said.

The helicopter, from Olathe Spray Service and flown by pilot Devin Felix, had been called into action to help search for victims in the Jeep accident, and was then diverted to find and extricate the three hikers.

Wet from the storm and a long way from their vehicle, they were not prepared to spend a cold night in the elements, Berg said, and they used a cell phone to summon assistance.

After landing near the hikers, Felix blazed a trail across the basin to reach them and escorted them back to the helicopter, then brought them back to town in two trips, Berg said.

Tuesday turned out to be busy night for the local rescue team, which has seen its fewest number of calls this summer in the last 20-25 years. The two calls for SAR assistance were a spike in rescue activity that has been quiet since the winter, Berg said.

"This is the slowest summer I can remember," he said.

August 7, 2004

Accident victims transferred to Denver

The two juveniles that were seriously injured in a jeeping accident last Saturday on Imogene Pass have been transferred to Children's Hospital in Denver, where Cole Gluklick, 11, remains in critical condition and Ian Nordstrom, 7, is listed in stable condition.

A Colorado Springs couple died and the two boys were badly injured when the Jeep Grand Cherokee they were riding in rolled about 800 feet down the Ouray side of the mountain at about 3 p.m. Aug. 7, ejecting all four passengers.

Daniel Gluklick, 50, and his wife, Jeanine, 47, were pronounced dead at the scene. Their son and the family friend were airlifted by helicopter to St. Mary's Hospital in Grand Junction.

According to reports from the Colorado State Patrol office, the jeep was descending northbound from Imogene Pass in Ouray County when it pulled over to allow a Chevrolet Suburban traveling southbound to pass. When the jeep attempted to get back on the road, it drove onto some rocks, which lifted one side of the vehicle and caused it to roll off the embankment.

Ouray County Sheriff Junior Mativvi said it appeared that none of the passengers were wearing seatbelts at the time of the accident.

According to the police report, Cole Gluklick sustained injuries to his head, torso and extremities and Nordstrom suffered injuries to his head, chest and extremities.

The accident follows another fatal accident that occurred just two weeks previously on the next pass to the south, Black Bear Pass, when a Missouri couple lost control of their Jeep and rolled more than 900 feet down the steep slope above Bridal Veil Falls. The victims in that accident, also found to not have been wearing seatbelts, were pronounced dead at the scene.

The pair of fatal accidents on the passes above Telluride have made for an anomalous year in the region; local law and rescue officials have said that there had not been a fatal accident on either Black Bear or Imogene Pass in recent memory.