{"id":48311,"date":"2021-02-26T15:08:13","date_gmt":"2021-02-26T22:08:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/cries-for-help-led-to-drivers-rescue-on-red-mountain\/"},"modified":"2021-02-26T22:08:13","modified_gmt":"2021-02-26T22:08:13","slug":"cries-for-help-led-to-drivers-rescue-on-red-mountain","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/cries-for-help-led-to-drivers-rescue-on-red-mountain\/","title":{"rendered":"Cries for help led to driver\u2019s rescue on Red Mountain"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"A
A Grand Junction man veered off the road, hit a sign and rolled several times before coming to rest 750 feet down the mountain and into a river.<\/span>Courtesy of Ouray County Sheriff\u2019s Office<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

A 30-year-old man from Grand Junction has been identified as the driver who went an estimated 750 feet off Red Mountain Pass on Thursday, requiring an extensive rescue effort and transport to a hospital by a helicopter.<\/p>\n

Colorado State Patrol Trooper Gary Cutler said Mark Villegas was headed north Thursday morning on U.S. Highway 550, when about 2 miles from Ouray, he veered into the southbound lane, hit a road sign and went off the highway.<\/p>\n

\"A
A Colorado Department of Transportation driver noticed a debris pile and damaged sign Thursday on Red Mountain Pass, south of Ouray, and soon heard a 30-year-old Grand Junction man&#x2019;s cries for help.<\/span>Courtesy of Ouray County Sheriff\u2019s Office<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"A
A 30-year-old Grand Junction man spent hours yelling for help before he was discovered off Red Mountain Pass on Thursday.<\/span>Courtesy of Ouray County Sheriff\u2019s Office<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

A spokeswoman with St. Mary\u2019s Hospital in Grand Junction said Villegas was in \u201cgood condition\u201d as of Friday afternoon.<\/p>\n

According to reports, the vehicle went 750 feet down a steep embankment, overturning a couple times and coming to rest in a river. The crash happened near mile marker 89, just south of Ouray County Road 18 (Forest Service Road 878).<\/p>\n

Calls to the Ouray County Sheriff\u2019s Office were not immediately returned Friday morning.<\/p>\n

In a post to social media, the Sheriff\u2019s Office said Villegas spent hours in the vehicle before he was discovered.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn what had to have been a grueling and terrifying event, (Villegas) spent hours yelling for help while he and his vehicle lay in the river hundreds of feet below the road,\u201d the Sheriff\u2019s Office wrote in a Facebook post.<\/p>\n

The Sheriff\u2019s Office said that luckily, a Colorado Department of Transportation driver came across the debris field and heard the cries for help. Attempts to reach the CDOT employee, Deck Klein, were not successful Friday morning.<\/p>\n

The crash was reported to authorities about 9:45 a.m. Thursday, according to the State Patrol, kicking off a search and rescue mission that required crews to rappel down to the vehicle to retrieve Villegas, who was placed in a litter (stretcher) and roped up to road.<\/p>\n

\"A
A driver who went 750 feet off Red Mountain Pass required an extensive rescue Thursday.<\/span>Courtesy of Ouray County Sheriff\u2019s Office<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

According to the State Patrol, Villegas was brought back to the road about 11:30 a.m. and was taken by helicopter to St. Mary\u2019s Hospital.<\/p>\n

Trooper Cutler said neither alcohol, drugs or excessive speed are believed to be factors in the crash, which remains under investigation.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re not sure exactly why he went off the roadway there,\u201d Cutler said.<\/p>\n

CDOT spokeswoman Lisa Schwantes said previously traffic was only slightly impacted as a result of the crash. The vehicle, Cutler said, is likely to be recovered at a later date.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019re probably going to have to bring in a big tow truck to get it out of there,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

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

Authorities say Grand Junction man was yelling for hours before being discovered<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":48312,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[576,28,2029,87,1384],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-48311","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-colorado-department-of-transportation","tag-headlines","tag-ouray-county","tag-red-mountain-pass","tag-u-s-highway-550"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48311","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=48311"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48311\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/48312"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=48311"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=48311"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=48311"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=48311"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}