{"id":2451315,"date":"2019-11-19T21:04:00","date_gmt":"2019-11-20T04:04:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.aspentimes.com\/news\/car-destroys-closed-winter-gate-opens-maroon-creek-road\/"},"modified":"2019-11-19T21:04:00","modified_gmt":"2019-11-20T04:04:00","slug":"car-destroys-closed-winter-gate-opens-maroon-creek-road","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/local-news\/car-destroys-closed-winter-gate-opens-maroon-creek-road\/","title":{"rendered":"Car destroys closed winter gate, opens Maroon Creek Road"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"swift-gallery p402_hide\" readability=\"6.5483870967742\">\n<ul id=\"imageGallery-316266-568\" class=\"gallery list-unstyled\">\n<li data-thumb=\"https:\/\/cdn.aspentimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2019\/11\/gate-atd-112019-1-150x150.jpg\" data-src=\"https:\/\/cdn.aspentimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2019\/11\/gate-atd-112019-1-1024x682.jpg\" data-sub-html=\"Kelsey Brunner\/The Aspen Times | Half of the winter closure gate on Maroon Creek Road lays in the ditch beside the road Tuesday after a car crashed into it and inadvertely opened the closed road to traffic. (Kelsey Brunner\/The Aspen Times)\" class=\"h-100\" readability=\"-1\">\n<div class=\"caption\" readability=\"9\">\n<p><strong>Half of the winter closure gate on Maroon Creek Road lays in the ditch beside the road Tuesday after a car crashed into it and inadvertely opened the closed road to traffic. (Kelsey Brunner\/The Aspen Times)<\/strong><br \/>Kelsey Brunner\/The Aspen Times<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"row no-gutters h-100\">\n<div class=\"col my-auto\"> <img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.aspentimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2019\/11\/gate-atd-112019-1-1024x682.jpg\" data-no-lazy=\"1\" alt=\"Half of the winter closure gate on Maroon Creek Road lays in the ditch beside the road Tuesday after a car crashed into it and inadvertely opened the closed road to traffic. (Kelsey Brunner\/The Aspen Times)\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/li>\n<li data-thumb=\"https:\/\/cdn.aspentimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2019\/11\/gate-atd-112019-1-1-150x150.jpg\" data-src=\"https:\/\/cdn.aspentimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2019\/11\/gate-atd-112019-1-1-1024x682.jpg\" data-sub-html=\"Kelsey Brunner\/The Aspen Times | Two bicyclists ride past half of the damaged Maroon Creek Road gate Tuesday. (Kelsey Brunner\/The Aspen Times)\" class=\"h-100\" readability=\"-1.5\">\n<div class=\"caption\" readability=\"8\">\n<p><strong>Two bicyclists ride past half of the damaged Maroon Creek Road gate Tuesday. (Kelsey Brunner\/The Aspen Times)<\/strong><br \/>Kelsey Brunner\/The Aspen Times<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"row no-gutters h-100\">\n<div class=\"col my-auto\"> <img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.aspentimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2019\/11\/gate-atd-112019-1-1-1024x682.jpg\" data-no-lazy=\"1\" alt=\"Two bicyclists ride past half of the damaged Maroon Creek Road gate Tuesday. (Kelsey Brunner\/The Aspen Times)\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p class=\"caption-toggle\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.aspentimes.com\/news\/car-destroys-closed-winter-gate-opens-maroon-creek-road\/#\" class=\"show-captions\">Show Captions<\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/www.aspentimes.com\/news\/car-destroys-closed-winter-gate-opens-maroon-creek-road\/#\" class=\"hide-captions\">Hide Captions<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText DropCap\">A speeding car on Tuesday morning crashed into and destroyed part of the winter closure gate on Maroon Creek Road, officials said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">The incident temporarily opened the road to the Maroon Bells to vehicle traffic, though it officially closed Friday for the winter, Pitkin County Sheriff\u2019s Deputy Ryan Voss said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">Witnesses said the crash occurred about 10:30 a.m. and involved a black-colored sedan \u2014 possibly a Subaru \u2014 that hit the heavy steel gate and sheared off the steel post that held the gate in the ground without even trying to stop, he said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">\u201cThere were no skid marks,\u201d Voss said. \u201cThat tells me there has to be significant damage to any car that hit it.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">Voss found debris at the scene indicating the car was black in color, he said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">Witnesses said the car\u2019s driver turned around after hitting the gate, fled the scene and had not filed an accident report as of Tuesday afternoon, Voss said. The deputy called Aspen Valley Hospital as well as area towing companies and body shops Tuesday in an effort to track down the vehicle, but to no avail, he said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">He said he encountered several cars with both locals and tourists inside coming down from the Maroon Bells and they didn\u2019t know the road was officially closed. While the gate on the lane heading downvalley remained closed, the gate on the other side was laying beside the road and could not be seen, making it appear the road was open, Voss said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">By the time Voss arrived, an employee of T-Lazy 7 Ranch had parked a truck across the road to prevent other vehicles from accessing the Maroon Bells, he said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">The winter closure gate featured a large \u201cRoad Closed\u201d sign in the middle and should have been hard to miss, said Scott Mattice, the county\u2019s road and bridge director. Voss speculated the sun might have blinded the driver.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">\u201cIt should be pretty obvious,\u201d Mattice said. \u201cHow did someone run into our gate? What in the world happened up there?\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">One of his employees said the gate was in pieces and had been completely sheared off from the post that held it up upright, Mattice said. Workers installed a large temporary closure sign, though it was not secure, he said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">Mattice estimated the gate weighs between 200 and 300 pounds and is made of 4-inch-square steel tubing.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">\u201cIt sounds like there\u2019s a Subaru somewhere with some front-end damage,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\"> It will cost about $5,000 to replace, though Mattice said he was confident his employees could weld it back together Wednesday for the winter. It will likely have to be rebuilt next year, he said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">In the meantime, Mattice and Voss urged residents to respect the road closure.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">Voss asked those with information about the car that hit the gate to call the Pitkin County Sheriff\u2019s Office at 970-920-5300.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText Tagline\"><a href=\"mailto:jauslander@aspentimes.com\">jauslander@aspentimes.com<\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.aspentimes.com\/news\/car-destroys-closed-winter-gate-opens-maroon-creek-road\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">via:: The Aspen Times<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Half of the winter closure gate on Maroon Creek Road lays in the ditch beside the road Tuesday after a car crashed into it and inadvertely opened the closed road to traffic. (Kelsey Brunner\/The Aspen Times)Kelsey Brunner\/The Aspen Times Two bicyclists ride past half of the damaged Maroon Creek Road gate Tuesday. (Kelsey Brunner\/The Aspen [&hellip;]<\/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":["post-2451315","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","category-local-news"],"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-08-19 05:48:57","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&#039;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\/2451315","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=2451315"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2451315\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2451315"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2451315"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2451315"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}