A 71-year-old Cortez man was airlifted to a Denver hospital on Sunday after riding his motorcycle off a sharp curve and crashing into a ditch.
According to Colorado State Patrol Trooper Blayne Smith, Ronald Kraft was riding a Harley Davidson motorcycle westbound on County Road G about 10 a.m. when he overshot a left turn and ran off the right side of the road.
The motorcycle went down an embankment and into a drainage ditch containing about 6 inches of water.
Smith said alcohol and drugs are not suspected. Witnesses said he was wearing a helmet, Smith said, but excessive speed might have been a factor.
“It was a pretty sharp curve down there,” Smith said of the road, which travels through McElmo Canyon.
Kraft was taken by ambulance to Southwest Memorial Hospital in Cortez, then airlifted to Denver Health Medical Center, which is equipped for traumatic head injuries. Kraft’s niece, Chelsea Hanson, who flew with Kraft to Denver, said late Sunday that he was in an intensive care unit, but “was doing good” and was “alert and talking.” Kraft was scheduled for surgery on Monday morning.
Smith said Kraft was riding his motorcycle alone, but was traveling with his friend Andy Peacock, of Durango, who was on a separate motorcycle.
Peacock said he’s known Kraft for about 30 years. He said the two were traveling to Bluff, Utah.
“He just missed a curve,” Peacock said. “The bike caught the foot rest and flipped his bike tire up from underneath him.”
The speed limit is 40 mph on that section of Road G, with a cautionary speed limit of 15 mph at the curve. Minutes after the crash, a visibly shaken Peacock told The Journal that the two were riding about 20 mph and that Kraft might have become distracted by oncoming motorcyclists. “The curve snuck up on him,” he said.
The Colorado State Police, Cortez Fire Protection District, Montezuma County Sheriff’s Office and a Southwest Health System ambulance reported to the scene, just east of 18737 County Road G, about 5 miles west of the Cortez Municipal Airport.
The curve is one of several dangerous bends on Road G, in which riders cannot around a hill or trees until they are about halfway into the curve. The speed limit is 40 mph on that section of Road G, with a cautionary speed limit of 15 mph at the curve.
In an early report, The Journal listed Kraft as a Durango resident, based on information from Peacock.
The Cortez Journal and Durango Herald contributed to this article.
