Car crash sends vehicle off Transmountain

Two people are in the hospital after a serious crash in the Franklin Mountains. Shut down lanes delayed traffic as crews worked to rescue the passengers and clear the area.

The driver and passenger of the rolled over sedan were taken to the hospital Saturday after they crashed, driving off Transmountain and into Castner Range.

A car crashed over a roadside barrier and flew of Transmountain Saturday, rolling over and injuring its passengers. Dispatchers told ABC-7 the first call about the crash came in around 2:04 pm. One witness told ABC-7 the car was speeding down the curves on transmountain before the crash, sharply moving from lane to lane.

“He tried to correct it and he went to the far left lane, and then he overcorrected again and he hit a little concrete wall…as soon as the front tires hit that little wall, the car flipped” said Marie Portillo, who saw the crash happen.

The sheriff’s office said their investigation hasn’t shown exactly what happened yet.

“We know he was driving eastbound on Transmountain and lost control for an unknown reason, and left the roadway,” said Leslie Atuñez withthe El Paso County Sheriff’s Office.

Witnesses and the sheriff’s office both said the car rolled over once if was off the highway and falling into the ravine. The car had to be cut open by rescuers to get the people out, both surviving with serious but non-life-threatening injuries.

“We approached the area where the car overturned, and it looks like it rolled over because there’s damage on top and on the bottom, and it’s just like a big ball of metal,” Portillo said.

It took almost two hours for rescuers to lift both passengers out from the ravine, and another to tow the car away.

Animal services showed up to help with a family pet in the car, but it had sadly died at the scene.