{"id":36188,"date":"2023-01-03T12:31:15","date_gmt":"2023-01-03T19:31:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/bayfield-man-dies-in-snowmobile-crash\/"},"modified":"2026-03-31T08:29:47","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T08:29:47","slug":"bayfield-man-dies-in-snowmobile-crash","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/bayfield-man-dies-in-snowmobile-crash\/","title":{"rendered":"Bayfield man dies in snowmobile crash"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><figure class=\"wp-block-image naviga-inline-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/imengine.public.prod.dur.navigacloud.com\/?uuid=f43a4729-77d6-5b12-b77e-990df8a8a2ad&amp;function=cover&amp;type=preview&amp;source=false&amp;width=2000\" width=\"761\" height=\"512\" alt=\"0123 fire engine lights Durango Fire Protection District\" class=\"naviga-image\" loading=\"lazy\"><figcaption><span class=\"caption\">0123 fire engine lights Durango Fire Protection District<\/span><span class=\"credit\">cca<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p><p>A 59-year-old La Plata County man died in a snowmobile crash Saturday in the 300 block of Blue Ridge Drive in the Forest Lakes subdivision.<\/p>\n<p>Stephen Waltens was operating the snowmobile when it left the road and careened down a 100-foot drop and hit a tree.<\/p>\n<p>La Plata County Coroner Jann Smith said Waltens swerved off the road to avoid an oncoming vehicle.<\/p>\n<p>Upper Pine River Fire Protection District was dispatched at 2:48 p.m. and emergency crews arrived to find the snowmobile down an embankment.<\/p>\n<p>Upper Pine crews attempted to resuscitate Waltens, but his injuries were fatal. Waltens was riding with a 12-year-old passenger at the time of the crash. The 12-year-old passenger was able to exit the sled before it went off the road.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"naviga-map\"><iframe src=\"https:\/\/maps.google.com\/maps?q=37.335486489307%2C-107.604625956&amp;z=15&amp;output=embed\" width=\"100%\" height=\"400\" style=\"border:0;\" allowfullscreen loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Map\"><\/iframe><\/figure>\n<p>Waltens was not wearing a helmet at the time of the crash, according to a news release from the La Plata County Sheriff\u2019s Office.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhether you\u2019re going around the block or out on a longer ride with a recreational vehicle of any sort, a helmet is an absolute must,\u201d said Chief Bruce Evans in a news release from Upper Pine.<\/p>\n<p>Upper Pine crews set up a rope system to bring the patient up a 60-degree slope. The crash is under investigation by the Sheriff\u2019s Office, and an autopsy will be conducted Wednesday.<\/p>\n<p><em id=\"emphasis-7f8745c8d7282aeab8fbc4b5c55b0744\"><a href=\"mailto:tbrown@durangoherald.com\">tbrown@durangoherald.com<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>road and fell down a 100-foot slope on Blue Ridge Drive<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":35682,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[731,255,28,1231,254,1370],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-36188","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-bayfield","tag-death-and-dying","tag-headlines","tag-pine-river-times","tag-road-crash","tag-upper-pine-river-fire-protection-district"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36188","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=36188"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36188\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":83257,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36188\/revisions\/83257"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/35682"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=36188"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=36188"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=36188"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=36188"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}