{"id":21672,"date":"2025-06-26T15:26:47","date_gmt":"2025-06-26T15:26:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/cyclist-injured-in-cortez-collision-crash-reemphasizes-importance-of-driving-safety\/"},"modified":"2026-03-31T04:08:00","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T04:08:00","slug":"cyclist-injured-in-cortez-collision-crash-reemphasizes-importance-of-driving-safety","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/cyclist-injured-in-cortez-collision-crash-reemphasizes-importance-of-driving-safety\/","title":{"rendered":"Cyclist injured in Cortez collision; crash reemphasizes importance of driving safety"},"content":{"rendered":"

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cca<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>\n

A local cyclist, Ernest (Joe) Green, 74, of Cortez, was seriously injured after being struck by a vehicle on East Main Street on May 2, according to a Cortez Police Department report.<\/p>\n

The driver, Miguel Martinez, 29, was cited for careless driving causing bodily injury and operating an uninsured motor vehicle.<\/p>\n

The crash occurred about 5:30 p.m. in the 2500 block of East Main Street. Green reportedly suffered a broken collarbone, ribs, leg, back and a traumatic brain injury. He was airlifted to St. Mary\u2019s Hospital in Grand Junction for treatment.<\/p>\n

According to the police report, Martinez was driving westbound and merging into a turn lane to head north on Colorado 145 when he struck Green. Martinez told police he did not see Green before merging and was unable to slow down in time. The impact caused significant damage to the vehicle\u2019s windshield and hood, and Green\u2019s road bicycle was broken in multiple places, and Green\u2019s personal items were scattered across the road.<\/p>\n

According to the police report, Martinez told police that he had drank a beer about 30 minutes before the crash, but passed voluntary roadside sobriety tests. The vehicle driven by Martinez, which was registered to his father, was uninsured.<\/p>\n

A small container labeled \u201ccannabis\u201d was found in Green\u2019s cycling shorts.<\/p>\n

Green and his wife, Karen Hughes, are longtime Cortez residents and are members of the Southwest Cycling Association.<\/p>\n

An email to The Journal <\/em>from Jennifer Jardine, who created a GoFundMe<\/a> for Green, urged drivers to remain vigilant and prioritize the safety of cyclists and pedestrians on the road.<\/p>\n

\u201cJoe is in for a long road to recovery,\u201d Jardine said. \u201cJoe Green and Karen Hughes have been members of the community for many years.\u00a0They are both avid cyclists and have volunteered their time for trail maintenance with SW Cycling Association.\u201d<\/p>\n

Martinez is scheduled for pretrial conference on July 15 at 10 a.m. in Montezuma County Court.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

was reportedly hit in the bike lane while cycling in May<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":13996,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[21,701,28,60,29],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-21672","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-cortez","tag-disasters-and-crashes","tag-headlines","tag-montezuma-county","tag-newsletter"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21672","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=21672"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21672\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":77411,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21672\/revisions\/77411"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13996"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21672"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21672"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21672"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=21672"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}