{"id":133008,"date":"2026-06-12T15:46:06","date_gmt":"2026-06-12T21:46:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/two-motorcyclists-killed-in-separate-crashes-in-la-plata-county\/"},"modified":"2026-06-12T20:08:18","modified_gmt":"2026-06-13T02:08:18","slug":"two-motorcyclists-killed-in-separate-crashes-in-la-plata-county","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/two-motorcyclists-killed-in-separate-crashes-in-la-plata-county\/","title":{"rendered":"Two motorcyclists killed in separate crashes in La Plata County"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><figure class=\"wp-block-image naviga-inline-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/imengine.public.prod.dur.navigacloud.com\/?uuid=67eb04c5-5daf-5b43-94d7-1e0dd332b3e7&amp;function=cover&amp;type=preview&amp;source=false&amp;width=2000\" srcset=\"https:\/\/imengine.public.prod.dur.navigacloud.com\/?uuid=67eb04c5-5daf-5b43-94d7-1e0dd332b3e7&amp;function=cover&amp;type=preview&amp;source=false&amp;width=800 800w, https:\/\/imengine.public.prod.dur.navigacloud.com\/?uuid=67eb04c5-5daf-5b43-94d7-1e0dd332b3e7&amp;function=cover&amp;type=preview&amp;source=false&amp;width=1200 1200w, https:\/\/imengine.public.prod.dur.navigacloud.com\/?uuid=67eb04c5-5daf-5b43-94d7-1e0dd332b3e7&amp;function=cover&amp;type=preview&amp;source=false&amp;width=1800 1800w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 480px) 100vw, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 2000px\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1320\" alt=\"Kristopher Chambers, 37, died Wednesday in a motorcycle crash on Camino del Rio near the Durango &amp; Silverton Narrow Gauge Railroad yard. (Courtesy photo)\" class=\"naviga-image\" loading=\"lazy\"><figcaption><span class=\"caption\">Kristopher Chambers, 37, died Wednesday in a motorcycle crash on Camino del Rio near the Durango &amp; Silverton Narrow Gauge Railroad yard. (Courtesy photo)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p><p>Two motorcyclists were killed in separate crashes in less than 24 hours Wednesday and Thursday in La Plata County.<\/p>\n<p>The first crash occurred about 8:20 p.m. Wednesday on Camino del Rio where the highway sweeps past the Durango &amp; Silverton Narrow Gauge Railroad rail yard, said Amanda Garrison, spokeswoman with Durango Police Department.<\/p>\n<p>The second crash occurred at about 2:50 p.m. Thursday on U.S. Highway 160 northeast of Bayfield, said Trooper Hunter Mathews with the Colorado State Patrol.<\/p>\n<p>Both were single-vehicle crashes involving only the drivers. Both drivers were wearing helmets.<\/p>\n<p>The driver in the first crash was identified as Kristopher Chambers, 37, of Durango, said Jann Smith, La Plata County coroner .<\/p>\n<p>Chambers was driving a custom-built Harley-Davidson northbound on Camino del Rio when \u2013 for unknown reasons \u2013 he veered off the right side of the road, went up an embankment and through a fence at the D&amp;SNG rail yard, Garrison said.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"naviga-map\"><iframe src=\"https:\/\/maps.google.com\/maps?q=37.267119519464%2C-107.88273243757&amp;z=15&amp;output=embed\" width=\"100%\" height=\"400\" style=\"border:0;\" allowfullscreen loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Map\"><\/iframe><\/figure>\n<p>\u201c(A) preliminary investigation looks like he tried to avoid something, but we don\u2019t know,\u201d she said. \u201cThere\u2019s been zero witnesses come forward, and we don\u2019t have any cameras or anything in that area.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Police do not suspect impairment, but that is based on a preliminary investigation.<\/p>\n<p><figure class=\"wp-block-image naviga-inline-image naviga-align-left alignleft naviga-size-medium\" data-naviga-align=\"left\" data-naviga-size=\"medium\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/imengine.public.prod.dur.navigacloud.com\/?uuid=1b2a95cb-ae7a-562b-b4fb-825b1a757d27&amp;function=cover&amp;type=preview&amp;source=false&amp;width=2000\" srcset=\"https:\/\/imengine.public.prod.dur.navigacloud.com\/?uuid=1b2a95cb-ae7a-562b-b4fb-825b1a757d27&amp;function=cover&amp;type=preview&amp;source=false&amp;width=800 800w, https:\/\/imengine.public.prod.dur.navigacloud.com\/?uuid=1b2a95cb-ae7a-562b-b4fb-825b1a757d27&amp;function=cover&amp;type=preview&amp;source=false&amp;width=1200 1200w, https:\/\/imengine.public.prod.dur.navigacloud.com\/?uuid=1b2a95cb-ae7a-562b-b4fb-825b1a757d27&amp;function=cover&amp;type=preview&amp;source=false&amp;width=1800 1800w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 480px) 100vw, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 2000px\" width=\"1920\" height=\"2560\" alt=\"Kristopher Chambers, 37, died Wednesday in a motorcycle crash on Camino del Rio near the Durango &amp; Silverton Narrow Gauge Railroad yard. He is shown with his partner, Heidi. (Courtesy photo)\" class=\"naviga-image\" loading=\"lazy\"><figcaption><span class=\"caption\">Kristopher Chambers, 37, died Wednesday in a motorcycle crash on Camino del Rio near the Durango &amp; Silverton Narrow Gauge Railroad yard. He is shown with his partner, Heidi. (Courtesy photo)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image naviga-inline-image naviga-align-left alignleft naviga-size-medium\" data-naviga-align=\"left\" data-naviga-size=\"medium\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/imengine.public.prod.dur.navigacloud.com\/?uuid=e99f4210-a78b-507a-975c-b9e94e90791c&amp;function=cover&amp;type=preview&amp;source=false&amp;width=2000\" srcset=\"https:\/\/imengine.public.prod.dur.navigacloud.com\/?uuid=e99f4210-a78b-507a-975c-b9e94e90791c&amp;function=cover&amp;type=preview&amp;source=false&amp;width=800 800w, https:\/\/imengine.public.prod.dur.navigacloud.com\/?uuid=e99f4210-a78b-507a-975c-b9e94e90791c&amp;function=cover&amp;type=preview&amp;source=false&amp;width=1200 1200w, https:\/\/imengine.public.prod.dur.navigacloud.com\/?uuid=e99f4210-a78b-507a-975c-b9e94e90791c&amp;function=cover&amp;type=preview&amp;source=false&amp;width=1800 1800w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 480px) 100vw, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 2000px\" width=\"1080\" height=\"1407\" alt=\"Kristopher Chambers, 37, died Wednesday in a motorcycle crash on Camino del Rio near the Durango &amp; Silverton Narrow Gauge Railroad yard. He is shown with his partner, Heidi. (Courtesy photo)\" class=\"naviga-image\" loading=\"lazy\"><figcaption><span class=\"caption\">Kristopher Chambers, 37, died Wednesday in a motorcycle crash on Camino del Rio near the Durango &amp; Silverton Narrow Gauge Railroad yard. He is shown with his partner, Heidi. (Courtesy photo)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p><p>\u201cHe stayed on the bike for a substantial amount of time and actually made it into the train yard, so up and through a fence,\u201d Garrison said.<\/p>\n<p>Chambers moved with his partner, Heidi, to Durango in April 2025. He worked as the service manager at Durango Harley-Davidson, said Trevor Bird, owner of the dealership.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cOne of the things I really admired about Kris is a lot of us who call Durango home take for granted what we have in the backyard,\u201d he said. \u201c\u2026 Every weekend Heidi and him were out exploring the backcountry and camping and fishing. He never let a minute of life slip by without making the most of it.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The shop hosted a dinner for the Open Road Hog Posse Ride on Wednesday, in which employees cooked for 250 HOG members. At the end of the day, he and Bird were reminiscing about a difficult, but rewarding day \u2013 \u201cand we absolutely loved it,\u201d Bird said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cKris was not just an incredible manager \u2013 amazing with our customers, a great leader \u2013 but he was a hard worker,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>He said Chambers was looking forward to a busy weekend with several motorcycle events taking place in Southwest Colorado.<\/p>\n<p>In a statement to <em id=\"emphasis-fb6892a8fec33c28ebf5578a29a6c67d\">The Durango Herald<\/em>, Heidi said Chambers\u2019 passion was riding motorcycles and working for Harley-Davidson.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt was important to him to do the best job he could and support the motorcycling community,\u201d she said. \u201cHe enjoyed swapping stories with customers, with longtime riders and helping Harley customers have phenomenal experiences. It had always been his dream to live and work at a Colorado Harley-Davidson dealership. He was able to do that and excel at it.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The driver of the second crash was identified as Gregory Osborn, of Dayton, Nevada, Smith said.<\/p>\n<p>Osborn was driving an Indian Motorcycle westbound toward Bayfield when he failed to negotiate a slight left turn in the road and traveled off the right side of the road, Mathews said.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"naviga-map\"><iframe src=\"https:\/\/maps.google.com\/maps?q=37.289298584483%2C-107.50693349691&amp;z=15&amp;output=embed\" width=\"100%\" height=\"400\" style=\"border:0;\" allowfullscreen loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Map\"><\/iframe><\/figure>\n<p>\u201cHe then went up a steep embankment, which ejected the driver from the motorcycle,\u201d Mathews said. \u201cHe was pronounced deceased after being transported to a nearby medical facility.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Mathews was apparently at the Sky Ute Casino for an Indian Motorcycle get-together and demo riding event. He was reportedly trying out a motorcycle at the time of his crash, Smith said.<\/p>\n<p>Garrison urged motorcyclists to wear helmets and asked other drivers to be aware of their surroundings.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cFor the motorcycle riders out there: A helmet is not an inconvenience. Every time you put one on it\u2019s added safety,\u201d she said. \u201cFor drivers: (Take) the extra time to look a second time and make sure you\u2019re sharing the road.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><em id=\"emphasis-7ea4c9289e95e52bfac2df65a5e3d58f\"><a href=\"mailto:shane@durangoherald.com\">shane@durangoherald.com<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>One occurred on Camino del Rio in Durango; another took place on U.S. Highway 160 east of Bayfield<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":133009,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5736,5735],"tags":[255,1820,1065,28,1936,254,1829,6419,69],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-133008","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-local-news","category-news","tag-death-and-dying","tag-dh-trueanthem","tag-durango-police-department","tag-headlines","tag-motorcycling","tag-road-crash","tag-tcr-trueanthem","tag-tj-trueanthem","tag-u-s-highway-160"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/133008","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=133008"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/133008\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":133026,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/133008\/revisions\/133026"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/133009"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=133008"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=133008"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=133008"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=133008"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}