{"id":15618,"date":"2025-11-20T21:26:35","date_gmt":"2025-11-21T04:26:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/driver-ejected-from-suv-after-hitting-semitrailer-on-u-s-491\/"},"modified":"2026-03-30T21:49:24","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T03:49:24","slug":"driver-ejected-from-suv-after-hitting-semitrailer-on-u-s-491","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/driver-ejected-from-suv-after-hitting-semitrailer-on-u-s-491\/","title":{"rendered":"Driver ejected from SUV after hitting semitrailer on U.S. 491"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><figure class=\"wp-block-image naviga-inline-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/imengine.public.prod.dur.navigacloud.com\/?uuid=1e544049-ea6c-597a-9e14-cd61660b025e&amp;function=cover&amp;type=preview&amp;source=false&amp;width=2000\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1500\" alt=\"A view south from Stotz Equipment on U.S. Highway 491. Just down the road, a Chevrolet Trax entered the opposite lane and collided with a Freightliner Cascadia semitrailer Wednesday afternoon, resulting in a partial road closure and a seriously injured driver. (Benjamin Rubin\/The Journal)\" class=\"naviga-image\" loading=\"lazy\"><figcaption><span class=\"caption\">A view south from Stotz Equipment on U.S. Highway 491. Just down the road, a Chevrolet Trax entered the opposite lane and collided with a Freightliner Cascadia semitrailer Wednesday afternoon, resulting in a partial road closure and a seriously injured driver. (Benjamin Rubin\/The Journal)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>\n<p>A crash Wednesday afternoon between an SUV and a semitrailer closed U.S. Highway 491 for nearly two hours after the SUV driver was ejected and seriously injured.<\/p>\n<p>The crash occurred south of Stotz Equipment and County Road N around 3:20 p.m. and led to a partial closure from about 3:40 p.m. to 5:40 p.m., according to an emergency alert from Montezuma County.<\/p>\n<p>A northbound Chevrolet Trax crossed into the southbound lane and hit the left side of a Freightliner Cascadia semitrailer, Colorado State Patrol Sgt. Ivan Alvarado said.<\/p>\n<p>The Chevrolet rolled several times and landed in a northbound ditch. The driver, a 20-year-old Cortez man, was ejected, indicating he was not wearing a seat belt, Alvarado said.<\/p>\n<p>The driver was taken to Southwest Memorial Hospital with serious injuries. The semitrailer\u2019s occupant, a 61-year-old Utah man, was not injured.<\/p>\n<p>Neither alcohol nor excessive speed appear to be factors, Alvarado said. Charges will depend on the outcome of the investigation, he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>seriously injured, State Patrol says<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":15619,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[28,29],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-15618","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-headlines","tag-newsletter"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15618","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=15618"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15618\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":19752,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15618\/revisions\/19752"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/15619"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15618"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15618"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15618"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=15618"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}