{"id":35361,"date":"2023-03-07T22:39:26","date_gmt":"2023-03-08T05:39:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/driver-hits-boulder-from-rockfall-on-colorado-highway-3\/"},"modified":"2026-03-31T02:24:14","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T08:24:14","slug":"driver-hits-boulder-from-rockfall-on-colorado-highway-3","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/driver-hits-boulder-from-rockfall-on-colorado-highway-3\/","title":{"rendered":"Driver hits boulder from rockfall on Colorado Highway 3"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"A
A woman driving a Toyota 4Runner hit a boulder that came crashing down Monday night on Colorado Highway 3. (Courtesy of Colorado Department of Transportation)<\/span>cca<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

A driver was taken to Mercy Hospital on Monday night after hitting a boulder on Colorado Highway 3 in a well-known rockfall area.<\/p>\n

The Colorado Department of Transportation was notified just after 7 p.m. that a car had driven into a 4-foot-by-2-foot chunk of rock at mile marker 1.2 just north of the highway\u2019s intersection with U.S. Highway 160.<\/p>\n

The female driver of the Toyota 4Runner suffered an injury from the vehicle\u2019s air bag, according to the Colorado State Patrol. The injury report was later revised to a property damage crash.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe probably got checked at the hospital and released,\u201d said Capt. John Trentini.<\/p>\n

Details about the driver and incident are limited until a crash report is filed, which usually takes a couple of days, Trentini said. The 4Runner, which had to be towed after the crash, had Colorado license plates.<\/p>\n

The road was closed for about an hour while CDOT removed the debris. The crash occurred below an area that is netted to keep rocks from falling onto the road, but the netting is a preventive tool that doesn\u2019t always help, especially if it is a large chunk that comes down, said CDOT spokeswoman Lisa Schwantes.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s real shale-like rock that is loose and prone to rockfall because of how loose the overall composition is in that area,\u201d Schwantes said. \u201cSo we definitely have done some preventive measures there because of issues in the past.\u201d<\/p>\n

Freezing temperatures followed by warmer days that thaw the moisture inside the rocks and crevices is the usual culprit for rockfalls this time of year.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat thaw-freeze cycle is just not good for rock and it tends to loosen,\u201d Schwantes said. \u201cAnd it\u2019s the same with potholes. We are definitely moving into the pothole season and unfortunately we are right at the cusp of the seasons where it\u2019s still too moist. If the ground is moist and the asphalt has too much moisture in it, we can\u2019t fill those yet because it\u2019s just going to come right out. So we wait for a dry spell and then get those potholes as quickly as we can.\u201d<\/p>\n

Schwantes advises drivers to be \u201cvery, very cautious and alert\u201d for potholes and while driving near any type off cliffside where rocks could fall.<\/p>\n

gjaros@durangoherald.com<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Department of Transportation cautions drivers to be extra careful during freeze-thaw cycle<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":35362,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[576,28,254],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-35361","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-colorado-department-of-transportation","tag-headlines","tag-road-crash"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35361","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=35361"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35361\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":82952,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35361\/revisions\/82952"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/35362"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=35361"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=35361"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=35361"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=35361"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}