Winter Wreckage in Colorado Springs
This morning, we woke to snow. As we drove east from Pagosa Springs, we quickly realized that we’d have to go through a mountain pass, where the snow quickly turned to a small blizzard. We passed tractor trailers chaining up on the side of the road and visibility began to drop. The road was completely covered in snow so that it was difficult to make out the lanes. Dave crawled up the 8 miles to the summit of the pass where we saw vehicles pulled off on the side, apparently waiting out the storm. One of the vehicles was another Volkswagen Van, and we began to doubt whether we should go on. Dave felt pretty confident we would be fine and we had good tires, so we began the descent. After another 8 miles of steep grade and tight corners, we made it to the bottom on the other side. It was a long drive, with little respite from the snow.
Luckily, the weather cleared until we got to just South of Colorado Springs, where the wind suddenly picked up and began whipping the falling snow into a frenzy, blowing so hard that the van heaved like a ship at rough sea. Dave gripped the wheel tightly, leaning forward and whistling under his breath the way he does whenever he’s feeling nervous. He stared intently at the road, while I watched for any sign of a hotel where we could seek refuge from the blizzard. Suddenly, we came upon a vehicle flipped on its side. We must have missed the accident by seconds, because the four wheel drive truck ahead of us immediately swerved through the ditch and to the vehicle’s side. Dave pulled over and ran to join the other driver next to the minivan, which lay on its side on the service road. He and two other men struggled to free the occupants, and Dave finally managed to tear open the rear hatch. I unbuckled Sienna and we sat transfixed at the window, watching as the first child emerged from the vehicle, looking confused, but otherwise fine. One of the men took the child to his truck to get him out of the intense cold. An infant came out next, also apparently unhurt, and Dave carried her to safety. After a few minutes, the whole family had managed to get out, all looking relatively well. I suggested to Sienna that we should buckle up again so that we’d be ready to leave as soon as Dave returned. In the meantime, someone had called an ambulance, which arrived quickly on the scene. She protested, wanting to see how they would flip the van back on its wheels, but I insisted and so we waited. Dave had just returned to the van, sat down and buckled up when he suddenly let out a loud gasp. Before I could ask why, we received a blow from behind and the entire van flew forward several feet on the icy shoulder. Sienna’s cup of milk flew into the air and the porta potty landed next to my feet. The garbage emptied its contents across the floor and clutter rained down on us from a ledge above.
Once the world stopped moving and we confirmed that all were fine, Dave went out into the storm yet again, to find out how the other driver was doing. His vehicle looked much worse than ours, which had been mostly spared when Dave put the van into drive and hit the gas. Our bikes, however, which had been on a rack in the back, didn’t fare so well (thankfully we had both brought our “seconds”). The entire front part of the other car was rumpled and his hood had folded back on itself like an accordion. The driver was fine, but his passenger was in the early stages of pregnancy and was feeling pains in her abdomen, which she agreed to have checked out by the paramedics at the crash site next to us.
That night, Dave met with a local police officer to file an accident report and we reported the incident to our insurers, along with a witness’ name. The driver accepted liability, so we hope this will be resolved without much trouble. We’re sad about losing our commuter bikes, but we’re much happier that we’re all safe and that we can keep driving tomorrow. It could have been worse!
