One person is dead and seven others were seriously injured Monday afternoon when a Toyota 4Runner collided with a van shuttling rafters from the Arkansas River near Buena Vista on the last official day of the rafting season, authorities said.
The crash, which was reported about 1:30 p.m. near Nathrop, shut down U.S. 285 for nearly five hours during a busy travel weekend. Colorado State Patrol Trooper Gabriel Moltrer said Tuesday the collision happened when the 4Runner tried to pass a long line of vehicles around a right curve in a no-passing zone and crashed head-on with the rafting van.
The driver of the 4Runner, a 33-year-old man from Golden, was taken to a hospital with life-threatening injuries, Moltrer said. His passenger, a 49-year-old man from Salida, was thrown from the vehicle and died at the scene, he said.
Chaffee County coroner Jeff Graf identified the passenger Tuesday as Justin Stensland.
The driver was wearing a seatbelt and Stensland was not, Moltrer said.
The 70-year-old driver of a Wilderness Aware Rafting van and five of its passengers are hospitalized with serious injuries. The passengers included people from Colorado, Rhode Island and Massachusetts ranging in age from 25 to 43 years old, Moltrer said.
According to Colorado State Patrol, the crash happened after a vehicle that was passing the rafting van in a passing lane headed north had to brake and steer left to avoid crashing head on with the 4Runner, which was traveling southbound, Moltrer said. The 4Runner then swerved to the left and collided head-on with the rafting van.
The 4Runner and rafting van rotated clockwise across the highway before the 4Runner came to a stop, on its side, on the east side of the road, he said. Then, a Ford F150 collided with the van’s trailer, which was towing an inflatable raft.
Four passengers of the rafting van were not wearing seat belts, he added. A driver and the passenger inside the Ford F150 were not injured.
Brian Ellis, president of Wilderness Aware Rafting, said the van was shuttling guests on the last day of the rafting season. The Labor Day holiday is typically considered the last weekend of the rafting season for many commercial companies along the Arkansas River.
Everyone on his team is alive but rattled from the crash, he said.
“We are heartbroken for everyone involved in the accident. We are fully supporting our Wilderness Aware team and guests, and fully cooperating with law enforcement’s investigation of the accident,” Ellis said in an email.
He declined to provide further details until law enforcement finished its investigation.
According to the State Patrol, three people were flown by helicopter to hospitals.