FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Child Killed, Three Injured in Single Vehicle Accident
-- Highway 145 Outside Norwood
Contact: Susan Lilly, Public Information Officer 970-729-2028
susanl@sanmiguelsheriff.org
August 17, 2016, -- (Norwood, CO) – A child was killed and three others were seriously injured, in a single vehicle motor vehicle accident with five occupants outside Norwood Sunday evening requiring a multiple agency response and medical air evacuation.
A Ford SUV was travelling eastbound on Highway 145 in the San Miguel canyon when just before 6:30pm it went off the roadway for an unknown reason, travelling 20 feet down an embankment and striking a tree.
A six year-old boy was pronounced dead on scene. A ten year-old girl was extricated from the vehicle and flown by medical helicopter to St. Mary’s Hospital in Grand Junction. The 30 year-old mother of the deceased child was also extricated and flown in another medical helicopter to a Denver Hospital. The driver, a 23 year-old female, was transported by Norwood EMS to Montrose Memorial Hospital. A two year-old girl was uninjured and released to her father on scene.
Sheriff Bill Masters said, “Fatalities are always horrible, but when a child is killed, it’s particularly tragic. On behalf of all of the agencies that responded to this incident, our thoughts are with the family at this most difficult time.”
The five passengers were believed to have visited relatives in the Norwood area and were returning home to Ridgway and Montrose.
San Miguel County Sheriff’s Deputies, Norwood EMS and Fire, Telluride Fire Protection District Fire and EMS, United States Forest Service, Colorado Division of Wildlife, Colorado Department of Transportation, Colorado State Patrol and two helicopters responded to the incident, which occurred on Highway 145, mile marker 93 just outside of Norwood.
Deputy Mike Kimball who was Incident Commander said, “We had much needed multi-agency response which was critical for this type of incident.”
Colorado State Patrol is investigating the incident.
Norwood, Colorado is a small town approximately thirty-three miles Northeast of Telluride, Colorado.
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The San Miguel Sheriff’s Office, located in Telluride, Colorado and established in 1883, serves 7,800 residents and countless visitors across the 1,288 square miles of San Miguel County. Sheriff Bill Masters has been serving as the county’s elected Sheriff since 1980.