Crash kills pregnant woman
Unborn child also dies as SUV slides off snowy I-70
By Alan Gathright, Rocky Mountain News (Contact)
Published May 13, 2008 at 11 p.m.
Updated May 16, 2008 at 8:40 a.m.
Photo by Photo By George Kochaniec Jr. / The Rocky
Rescue workers remove a victim of the fatal crash west of the Eisenhower Tunnel on Tuesday.
Photo by Photo By George Kochaniec Jr. / The Rocky
Investigators search the vehicle that rolled down an embankment off I-70 Tuesday, killing a woman and her unborn child. The driver and another passenger were hospitalized.
A pregnant woman and her unborn child died Tuesday when the SUV she was riding in slid off a snowpacked Interstate 70 in Summit County and rolled hundreds of feet down an embankment.
Analisette Sapien, a Frisco resident in her mid-20s, was unbuckled in the backseat of a Nissan Pathfinder that lost control and rolled several times, landing on its side 311 feet down the slope, according to the Colorado State Patrol and the Summit County Coroner's Office.
Sapien was partially thrown out of the SUV, Trooper Ryan Sullivan said.
The crash happened about 8 a.m. three miles west of the entrance to the Eisenhower Tunnel.
Sapien was pronounced dead at Summit Medical Center.
The driver, Jose Bucio, 28, of Frisco, sustained moderate injuries and was taken to Summit Medical Center. Another passenger, Livia Fuentes-Meza, 33, of Frisco, suffered serious injuries and also was hospitalized.
Both survivors were wearing seat belts.
State Patrol officers said the accident underscores the importance of using safety belts and driving cautiously in bad weather.
The tragedy occurred as nearly 100 Colorado law enforcement agencies participate in a national Click It or Ticket campaign to encourage seat-belt safety.
Nationwide, 77 percent of passengers who were involved in a traffic crash when buckled up survived in 2006.
Increased seat-belt use cut the number of unrestrained motorist fatalities in Colorado to an all-time low last year.
In 2007, more than 65 percent of the 206 unbuckled motorists who died in Colorado were partially or totally ejected from the vehicle, according to the Colorado Department of Transportation. Only 6 percent of victims wearing seat belts were ejected.
Colorado has a secondary enforcement law for adult drivers and front-seat passengers. Drivers can be ticketed for violating the seat belt law, only if they are stopped for another traffic violation. In the current enforcement campaign, drivers who are stopped for a traffic violation and who aren't using a seat belt will be ticketed.
PRESS RELEASE WITH CORRECTION FROM COLORADO STATE PATROL
Date: 5-15-08
Time: 8:40 P.M.
Location: Eastbound lanes of Colorado 70 at Milepost 212 (Summit County)
The Colorado State Patrol is committed by providing the motoring public and the citizens that they serve with the highest and most factual information in a timely manner and after further investigation it has been discovered that the name of one of the restrained passengers has been identified as Livia Fuentes-Meza, 33 of Frisco, CO. The initial report identified the name of this passenger as Zulma Fuller.
Fuentes-Meza sustained serious injuries while involved in a one car rollover crash on Colorado 70 on 5-13-08 at approximately 8:10 A.M.
The incident, however took the life of Analisette M. Sapien, 27 of Frisco, CO. another passenger within the Nissan Pathfinder. Sapien sustained injuries and was transported to the Summit Medical Center and was later pronounced dead by an attending medical physician.
This incident is still under investigation.
Next of kin have been notified.
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May 14, 2008
7:34 a.m.
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mytwosense writes:
What a tragedy. I feel awful for the families involved who will have to somehow process this news. How terribly sad.
May 14, 2008
8:53 a.m.
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American100 writes:
It's sad and frustrating. My wife's Mom died in a car accident. It's tough enough to lose someone, tougher when it could have been avoided.
May 14, 2008
9:36 a.m.
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tm3869 writes:
these types of things help me to drive home the importance of using seat belts to my kids. How sad for these families....
May 14, 2008
1:23 p.m.
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CaptainObvious writes:
Well said, all four of you.
May 14, 2008
2:47 p.m.
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me2 writes:
We could use some guard rail there also. Eisenhower makes me cringe when the roads are bad. Long approaches with no protection from that big fall.
May 14, 2008
3:44 p.m.
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ruserious writes:
FloydHill. I assume you have never been pregnant. I wouldn't be quick to call her dumb as she possibly could have been reposition herself with the restriction of the seatbelt and it was just unfortnate timing. Given other passengers had seatbelts I think you shouldn't be quick to judge
May 14, 2008
4:42 p.m.
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medina88 writes:
my sister got a ticket for not wearing her seat belt. She wrote a letter to the judge (also a woman) saying that she was 8 months pregnant and it was very uncomfortable to wear the seat belt. The judge dropped the ticket. I really don't agree with that. She wasn't really uncomfortable, but I do tell her that a seat belt is more comfortable then her head through the windshield.
This is a very sad story. It's hard enough to lose a loved one, but a new one on the way that will never be, makes it twice as hard. Blessings to her family.
May 14, 2008
6:57 p.m.
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crotchpheasant writes:
I think there is something wrong with the statistic that "77% of passengers who were involved in a traffic crash when buckled up survived in 2006." So nearly a quarter of all buckled passengers in car crashes did not survive? That's not correct.