One person was seriously injured Wednesday afternoon after the truck he was driving rolled off the side of Molas Pass at the Lime Creek curve.
The driver, Don Curnow of Animas Towing & Recovery, was responding to two other stuck vehicles on the icy pass when his truck rolled twice before coming to a stop 150-feet below the road, said San Juan County Sheriff Bruce Conrad.
“He actually walked himself to the roadside,” Conrad said. “He actually was en route to the hospital within 35 minutes.”
Curnow broke his sternum as well as three vertebrae, and is back at home, Conrad said.
The only passenger was Curnow’s dog, a 7-month-old British bull dog named Dozer.
Dozer survived the crash and was hiding from rescuers. He was hypothermic but is recovering.
“The dog knows me, so it took my voice to get the dog out from under the tree he was hiding under,” Conrad said.
Conrad said the totaled truck is scheduled to be recovered Thursday.
The crashes occurred about 3:50 p.m. at mile marker 60.5, said Capt. Adrian Driscoll with the Colorado State Patrol.
“We don’t have anything serious, just a bunch of slide-offs,” Driscoll said. “People can’t get to where they need to go.”
Conditions were extremely dangerous. Multiple drivers became stuck and slid off the road, but no one else was injured, Conrad said.
The highway remained open, and drivers were getting through “little by little,” Driscoll said at 5:20 p.m. Wednesday.
“It’s kind of a mess right now,” he said.
rsimonovich@durangoherald.com
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