{"id":23270,"date":"2025-03-05T10:58:56","date_gmt":"2025-03-05T17:58:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/traffic-opens-after-u-s-highway-550-crash-south-of-purgatory-resort\/"},"modified":"2026-03-31T04:31:44","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T04:31:44","slug":"traffic-opens-after-u-s-highway-550-crash-south-of-purgatory-resort","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/traffic-opens-after-u-s-highway-550-crash-south-of-purgatory-resort\/","title":{"rendered":"Traffic opens after U.S. Highway 550 crash south of Purgatory Resort"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"Durango
Durango Fire Protection District emergency personnel work to extricate the driver in a Jeep SUV after colliding with a U-Haul truck on Wednesday on U.S. Highway 550 four miles south of Purgatory Resort. A Flight For Life helicopter sits on the road waiting to transport him to Mercy Hospital. (Jerry McBride\/Durango Herald)<\/span>Jerry McBride<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

A head-on crash on U.S. Highway 550 near Electra Lake, 4 miles south of Purgatory Resort, shut down all lanes of travel shortly after 10:30 a.m. Wednesday. Both lanes of traffic reopened at 2:15 p.m.<\/p>\n

More than 20 emergency personnel responded to the report at 10:38 a.m. of a collision between a Jeep and a U-Haul box truck at milepost 45.<\/p>\n

Colorado State Patrol Capt. Angela DeGuelle confirmed the highway would be shut down, and early reports indicated two people were trapped in one or more vehicles.<\/p>\n

\"Durango
Durango Fire Protection District emergency personnel use two Jaws of Life to extricate the driver in the Jeep SUV after colliding with a U-Haul truck on Wednesday on U.S. Highway 550 four miles south of Purgatory Resort. (Jerry McBride\/Durango Herald)<\/span>Jerry McBride<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Both vehicles were on their sides, and the extrication of someone inside the Jeep remained underway as of 12:15 p.m., over 90 minutes after the crash.<\/p>\n

The driver of the Jeep was taken to Mercy Hospital with serious injuries in a Flight for Life helicopter. One of the two people traveling in the U-Haul was transported to Mercy in an ambulance; the other left the scene in a private vehicle.<\/p>\n

The crash remains under investigation, DeGuelle said. Details around how the crash occurred were not immediately available.<\/p>\n

This is a developing story. Check back with www.durangoherald.com for updates. <\/em><\/p>\n

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

\"It
It was a complicated extraction of the driver in the Jeep SUV \u2013 he was pinned by the motor after his car and a U-Haul truck collided Wednesday on U.S. Highway 550 four miles south of Purgatory Resort. (Jerry McBride\/Durango Herald)<\/span>Jerry McBride<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Transmission
Transmission fluid leaks from a U-Haul truck after a collision with a Jeep SUV on Wednesday on U.S. Highway 550 four miles south of Purgatory Resort. (Jerry McBride\/Durango Herald)<\/span>Jerry McBride<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Durango
Durango Fire Protection District emergency personnel and the Flight For Life crew take the driver of a Jeep SUV to the Flight For Life helicopter. (Jerry McBride\/Durango Herald)<\/span>Jerry McBride<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Durango
Durango Fire Protection District emergency personnel and the Flight For Life crew take the driver of a Jeep SUV to the Flight For Life helicopter. The Jeep collided with a U-Haul truck on Wednesday on U.S. Highway 550 four miles south of Purgatory Resort. (Jerry McBride\/Durango Herald)<\/span>Jerry McBride<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Emergency workers responded to initial reports of two people trapped<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":23256,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[28,254,1384],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-23270","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-headlines","tag-road-crash","tag-u-s-highway-550"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23270","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=23270"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23270\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":78045,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23270\/revisions\/78045"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/23256"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23270"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23270"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23270"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=23270"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}