A man who died Monday morning in an Elbert County crash after swerving into oncoming traffic on Colorado 86 wasn’t wearing his seatbelt, according to the state patrol.
Colorado State Patrol troopers responded at 6:36 a.m. Monday to the fatal crash on the state highway, about seven miles east of Kiowa, according to a news release from the agency.
The 45-year-old driver of a 1993 Dodge pickup truck was driving west on Colorado 86 when he went off the right shoulder, overcorrected and swerved into the highway’s eastbound lane, striking the side of a 2022 Ford SUV, state patrol officials said in the release.
Paramedics took the Ford driver, a 68-year-old woman who was wearing her seatbelt, to a Parker hospital with serious injuries, state patrol officials said. The Dodge driver died at the scene of the crash.
Troopers found unspecified drugs in the Dodge driver’s truck during the investigation, according to an update from the agency. It’s unknown if the driver was on drugs at the time of the crash.
Colorado 86 was closed for hours Monday morning during the crash cleanup and investigation, according to the agency.
The highway had fully reopened between Pawnee Avenue near Elizabeth and Interstate 70 near Limon by 1:15 p.m., .
This is a developing story and will be updated.
