A driver hit two horses in Vallecito on Friday evening, resulting in one horse being killed instantly and another having to be put down.
Thomas McBride, a 70-year-old man from Bayfield, was driving his Subaru northbound in the 4000 block of County Road 501 when he struck two horses that escaped from their owner and had gotten on the road.
“It was the middle of the night and he was just driving on the roadway and didn’t see them until it was too late,” said Trooper Gabriel Watkins with the Colorado State Patrol.
One horse went through the front windshield of the vehicle and was sprawled across the hood and the passenger seat of the vehicle. That horse died on impact.
The second horse was put down between 30 to 45 minutes later by La Plata County Sheriff’s Office. CSP had to locate the owner, who requested the horse be put down, Watkins said.
McBride was taken to Mercy Regional Medical Center with minor injuries.
The crash resulted in the road being closed for about 30 to 45 minutes, Watkins said.
“There was a horse in a car on one side of the road and a dead horse on the other side of the road,” he said.
asemadeni@durangoherald.com
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