{"id":127492,"date":"2026-05-04T18:18:23","date_gmt":"2026-05-05T00:18:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/driver-passenger-who-died-in-car-crash-near-bayfield-identified\/"},"modified":"2026-05-05T15:48:16","modified_gmt":"2026-05-05T21:48:16","slug":"driver-passenger-who-died-in-car-crash-near-bayfield-identified","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/driver-passenger-who-died-in-car-crash-near-bayfield-identified\/","title":{"rendered":"Driver, passenger who died in car crash near Bayfield identified"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"A
A fatal single-car crash was reported Saturday afternoon just east of Bayfield town limits. The vehicle, an older Chevrolet S-10, was found totaled about 40 feet down an embankment off U.S. Highway 160. Two adults were killed and one juvenile was taken to Mercy Hospital with minor injuries. (Courtesy of Bruce Evans, Upper Pine Fire Protection District chief)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Two people who were found dead after their car crashed on U.S. Highway 160 just east of Bayfield on Saturday<\/a> have been identified.<\/p>\n

La Plata County Coroner Jann Smith said Monday that 25-year-old Devante Griffin and 24-year-old Klariza Tarango, both of Farmington, died in the crash. Their 5-year-old daughter, Kayce Griffin, survived with minor injuries and was taken to Mercy Hospital, where she was discharged and reunited with her grandfather.<\/p>\n

Smith said the coroner\u2019s office will not be able to conduct an autopsy until Wednesday, meaning several questions about the crash remain unanswered. Neither adult had their seat belt on when emergency personnel arrived, she said.<\/p>\n

The Colorado State Patrol said excessive speed and impairment were ruled out as potential factors.<\/p>\n

CSP and Upper Pine River Fire Protection District were notified of the crash at 12:35 p.m. Saturday by another driver. The flipped vehicle was reportedly seen Friday but was not reported until the following day.<\/p>\n

CSP Trooper Hunter Mathews said Monday that the couple\u2019s vehicle \u2013 an older, blue Chevrolet S-10 pickup truck \u2013 had been traveling east on Highway 160 and gone off the south side of the road.<\/p>\n

It was the only vehicle involved in the crash. A CSP news release said investigators believe the vehicle crashed about 6 a.m. Friday and was not visible from the road.<\/p>\n

\"An
An older Chevrolet S-10 was found totaled about 40 feet down an embankment off U.S. Highway 160 on Saturday. Two adults were killed and one juvenile was taken to Mercy Hospital with minor injuries. (Courtesy Colorado State Patrol)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

\u201cI\u2019m not exactly sure what led to them going off the road or what occurred afterward,\u201d Mathews said.<\/p>\n

Upper Pine Chief Bruce Evans said Kayce Griffin was not in a car seat or a booster seat at the time of the crash, and that she was \u201cvery lucky\u201d to have survived. He urged drivers to make sure their children are secured in the appropriate car seats for their height and weight.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s absolutely critical that people understand that your kid might get big enough to be out of a car seat, but there\u2019s still height and weight requirements for them to be in a booster seat, and a lot of parents are not familiar with the requirements of a child to be in a booster seat versus into a car seat,\u201d he said Saturday.<\/p>\n

When reached for comment Monday, Evans did not have an update on the investigation but said a cross had been erected at the site of the crash.<\/p>\n

\"An
An older Chevrolet S-10 was found totaled about 40 feet down an embankment off U.S. Highway 160 on Saturday. Two adults were killed and one juvenile was taken to Mercy Hospital with minor injuries. (Courtesy Colorado State Patrol)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

sedmondson@durangoherald.com<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

An earlier version of this story misspelled Devante Griffin\u2019s and Kayce Griffin\u2019s last name<\/em>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Parents survived by 5-year-old daughter<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":127493,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5736,5735],"tags":[255,28,254,69,1370],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-127492","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-local-news","category-news","tag-death-and-dying","tag-headlines","tag-road-crash","tag-u-s-highway-160","tag-upper-pine-river-fire-protection-district"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/127492","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=127492"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/127492\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":127663,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/127492\/revisions\/127663"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/127493"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=127492"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=127492"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=127492"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=127492"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}