{"id":2447029,"date":"2019-07-31T20:48:00","date_gmt":"2019-08-01T02:48:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.aspentimes.com\/news\/aspen-man-loses-life-in-tragic-motorcycle-accident\/"},"modified":"2019-07-31T20:48:00","modified_gmt":"2019-08-01T02:48:00","slug":"aspen-man-loses-life-in-tragic-motorcycle-accident","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/local-news\/aspen-man-loses-life-in-tragic-motorcycle-accident\/","title":{"rendered":"Aspen man loses life in tragic motorcycle accident"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n
Stephan Elk with his horse, Chip.<\/strong>
Photo courtesy<\/em><\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n

Aspen resident Stephan Elk died Sunday after he collided with a minivan while riding his motorcycle outside of Buena Vista with a group of local men.<\/p>\n

He was 67.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s horrific and unbelievable,\u201d said Susie Elk, who has been married to Stephan for 31 years. \u201cHe was a great guy who loved Aspen and was a pronounced figure here.\u201d<\/p>\n

Rob Fabrocini, who is an Aspen police sergeant, was with Elk when he crashed on Route 24<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Elk collided head-on with a family in a minivan about 7 miles from the turnoff to Twin Lakes.<\/p>\n

Fabrocini said there were no signs of Elk having difficulty maneuvering his bike leading up to the accident.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s possible that he was unconscious and was at peace before the accident happened,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Aspen resident Andrew Sandler, who also was on the Sunday afternoon ride and described Elk as an excellent rider, surmised that he must have lost his faculties as he negotiated a turn on the road.<\/p>\n

Susie said her husband had been suffering from a bacterial infection in his leg for more than a month and was planning to go back to the hospital for additional treatment this week.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe don\u2019t really know what happened,\u201d she said. \u201cGod just grabbed him.\u201d<\/p>\n

The accident occurred about two car lengths in front of Fabrocini, who administered CPR on the scene for more than 45 minutes.<\/p>\n

The family in the van had no injuries.<\/p>\n

Sandler, who had ridden ahead of the group, turned around and tried to help on scene as well, he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe had to have passed out, or stroked out,\u201d Sandler said. \u201cThis had to be a medical issue.\u201d<\/p>\n

Stephan and Susie, who split their time between here and Florida, fell in love with Aspen years ago.<\/p>\n

They have two children, son Max, 29, and daughter Sammi, 30.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe was very warm and funny, and a great husband and a great father,\u201d Susie said. \u201cIt\u2019s a huge loss.\u201d<\/p>\n

Stephan was a regular fixture in Aspen, hanging out downtown with his Dobermann Pinscher, Kaiya, or riding his horse, Chip, along Government Trail.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe was a guy\u2019s guy \u2026 a really cool guy,\u201d Susie said. \u201cHe just reached out and touched everybody. He was a real wonderful man.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sandler also described his friend as a \u201cguy\u2019s guy.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIf it was horseback riding, skiing or riding bikes, he was there,\u201d he said. \u201cHe went out doing exactly what he wanted to do.\u201d<\/p>\n

Fabrocini said Elk was a charming guy who had a sparkle in his eye.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe would walk into a bar and there would be a group around him right away,\u201d he said. \u201cIf you had a problem, he was the guy you wanted to talk to.\u201d<\/p>\n

A memorial service will be held on Friday at 11 a.m. at Aspen Chapel, followed by a reception at Scarlett\u2019s restaurant on Hopkins Avenue.<\/p>\n

Csackariason@aspentimes.com<\/a><\/p>\n

via:: The Aspen Times<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Stephan Elk with his horse, Chip.Photo courtesy Aspen resident Stephan Elk died Sunday after he collided with a minivan while riding his motorcycle outside of Buena Vista with a group of local men. He was 67. \u201cIt\u2019s horrific and unbelievable,\u201d said Susie Elk, who has been married to Stephan for 31 years. \u201cHe was a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[49],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-2447029","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-local-news"},"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-06-24 05:40:59","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"distributor_meta":false,"distributor_terms":false,"distributor_media":false,"distributor_original_site_name":"KSPN The Valley's Quality Rock","distributor_original_site_url":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn","push-errors":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2447029","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2447029"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2447029\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2447029"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2447029"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2447029"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}