{"id":69871,"date":"2017-08-07T16:52:31","date_gmt":"2017-08-07T22:52:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/driver-may-have-been-distracted-in-bike-vs-car-crash\/"},"modified":"2017-08-07T22:52:31","modified_gmt":"2017-08-07T22:52:31","slug":"driver-may-have-been-distracted-in-bike-vs-car-crash","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/driver-may-have-been-distracted-in-bike-vs-car-crash\/","title":{"rendered":"Driver may have been distracted in bike vs. car 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=d2ea084f-232d-450f-9309-f08ca5788013&amp;function=cover&amp;type=preview&amp;source=false&amp;width=2000\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1500\" alt=\"A bicyclist was hit early Monday in the 3500 block of Main Avenue. The bicyclist was flown to St. Mary\u2019s Medical Center in Grand Junction in serious condition.\" class=\"naviga-image\" loading=\"lazy\"><figcaption><span class=\"caption\">A bicyclist was hit early Monday in the 3500 block of Main Avenue. The bicyclist was flown to St. Mary\u2019s Medical Center in Grand Junction in serious condition.<\/span><span class=\"credit\">Jerry McBride\/Durango Herald<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p><p>A 63-year-old Durango man who was hit by a vehicle while bicycling Monday on north Main Avenue was airlifted to a Grand Junction hospital with serious injuries, according to Durango Police Cmdr. Ray Shupe.<\/p>\n<p>The crash occurred about 5:30 a.m. in the 3600 block of north Main Avenue. Christopher Balchunas was riding southbound in the bicycle lane when he was struck by a 2007 Subaru Impreza, Shupe said.<\/p>\n<p>Balchunas suffered serious head trauma and was flown to Grand Junction, he said. Balchunas was not wearing a helmet. A spokesman at St. Mary\u2019s Medical Center said Balchunas was in \u201cserious\u201d condition as of 2 p.m. Monday.<\/p>\n<p>Shupe identified the driver of the vehicle as 22-year-old Jessica Durbin, also of Durango.<\/p>\n<p>According to witnesses, Durbin was traveling south in the left lane when she drifted into the right lane and into the bicycle lane, where she struck Balchunas, Shupe said.<\/p>\n<p>Alcohol or drugs are not suspected at this time. Instead, investigators suspect Durbin was reaching down for something on the floor of the car when she crossed over two lanes.<\/p>\n<p>Shupe said charges are pending.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe\u2019ll wait to see the condition of the victim before a final charging decision,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>Shupe said both Balchunas and Durbin live north of town and were likely traveling to work.<\/p>\n<p>Anyone who witnessed the crash is asked to call Officer Dave Smith at 375-4733.<\/p>\n<p>Portions of north Main Avenue were closed most of Monday morning as investigators reconstructed the crash scene.<\/p>\n<p><em class=\"mwc_shirttail\"><a href=\"mailto:jromeo@durangoherald.com\">jromeo@durangoherald.com<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>in \u2018serious\u2019 condition at Grand Junction hospital<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":69872,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[254],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-69871","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-road-crash"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/69871","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=69871"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/69871\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/69872"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=69871"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=69871"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=69871"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=69871"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}