{"id":2458398,"date":"2020-05-13T15:42:53","date_gmt":"2020-05-13T21:42:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.aspentimes.com\/?p=325654"},"modified":"2020-05-13T15:42:53","modified_gmt":"2020-05-13T21:42:53","slug":"rfta-bus-struck-by-boulder-monday-night-along-highway-82","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/local-news\/rfta-bus-struck-by-boulder-monday-night-along-highway-82\/","title":{"rendered":"RFTA bus struck by boulder Monday night along Highway 82"},"content":{"rendered":"<div readability=\"51.11761263897\">\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image p402_hide\">\n<div class=\"caption-container\">\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"640\" height=\"480\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.aspentimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2020\/05\/IMG_4302.jpg\" class=\"attachment-large size-large wp-post-image\" alt srcset=\"https:\/\/cdn.aspentimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2020\/05\/IMG_4302.jpg 640w, https:\/\/cdn.aspentimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2020\/05\/IMG_4302-300x225.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\"><\/p><figcaption><strong>Damage can be seen on a RFTA bus after it was struck by a boulder along Highway 82 on Monday night.<\/strong><br \/><em>Courtesy photo<\/em><\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<p>A boulder struck a RFTA bus traveling along Highway 82 Monday night from Glenwood Springs to Carbondale.<\/p>\n<p>The event occurred around 8:20 p.m. Monday following a rainstorm. RFTA CEO Dan Blankenship said no passengers were onboard during the incident and the driver was also OK.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe are very thankful,\u201d Blankenship said. \u201cIt could have been a very, very tragic accident.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>According to Blankenship, the boulder was moving fast enough to make its way across Highway 82\u2019s northbound lanes before striking the bus, which was traveling south.<\/p>\n<div class=\"row\">\n<div class=\"col\" readability=\"6\">\n<div class=\"row at-donation at-donation-mobile p-0\" readability=\"7\">\n<div class=\"col-xl-4 p-2\">\n<div data-bg=\"url(https:\/\/cdn.aspentimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2020\/03\/AT-logo-white.png)\" class=\"p-0 mt-2 mb-2 h-75 text-center rocket-lazyload\">\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.aspentimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2020\/03\/AT-logo-white.png\" class=\"logo m-0 p-0 invisible\"><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p><h3 class=\"d-inline mr-3\">Support Local Journalism<\/h3>\n<p><button class=\"btn d-inline\" type=\"button\" onclick=\"handleDonationButtonClickMidArticle()\">Donate<\/button><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>\u201cThe bus was heading to Carbondale to serve as a backup for other buses that were reaching the 9-passenger social distancing limit, which is why it didn\u2019t have any passengers at the time,\u201d Blankenship said.<\/p>\n<p>The bus was about a half a mile away from CMC\u2019s Spring Valley Campus turn off near the Thunder River Market when it was hit.<\/p>\n<p>The boulder hit the side of the bus not far from the driver compartment, Blankenship said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe bus can be repaired but when people get hurt that raises it to a whole other level of seriousness,\u201d Blankenship said.<\/p>\n<p>Blankenship did not have an exact estimate for how much the damage would cost but said it could easily surpass $25,000.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe bus will need to be sent out of the area to have extensive bodywork performed since it damaged the structure,\u201d Blankenship said.<\/p>\n<p>Blankenship estimated the boulder to be about 2 1\/2 to 3 feet tall and the same distance wide.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe\u2019re just thankful that our bus operator wasn\u2019t injured,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p><em class><a href=\"mailto:mabennett@postindependent.com\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">mabennett@postindependent.com<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div readability=\"11.303082191781\">\n<div class=\"col-xl-7 pt-3 pb-4 at-4 pl-4\" readability=\"19.164371772806\">\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.aspentimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2020\/03\/AT-logo-white.png\" class=\"logo\"><\/p>\n<p><strong>Readers around Aspen and Snowmass Village make the Aspen Times\u2019 work possible. Your financial contribution supports our efforts to deliver quality, locally relevant journalism.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>Now more than ever, your support is critical to help us keep our community informed about the evolving coronavirus pandemic and the impact it is having locally. Every contribution, however large or small, will make a difference.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>Each donation will be used exclusively for the development and creation of increased news coverage.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><button class=\"btn\" type=\"button\" onclick=\"handleDonationButtonClickBelow()\">Donate<\/button> <\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.aspentimes.com\/news\/rfta-bus-struck-by-boulder-monday-night-along-highway-82\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">via:: The Aspen Times<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Damage can be seen on a RFTA bus after it was struck by a boulder along Highway 82 on Monday night.Courtesy photo A boulder struck a RFTA bus traveling along Highway 82 Monday night from Glenwood Springs to Carbondale. The event occurred around 8:20 p.m. Monday following a rainstorm. RFTA CEO Dan Blankenship said no [&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-2458398","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","category-local-news"],"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-08-17 16:46:27","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\/2458398","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=2458398"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2458398\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2458398"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2458398"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2458398"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}