Families of women killed in Colorado crash sue, claim Jeep tour driver was under the influence
The lawsuit claims 72-year-old Don Fehd was a last-minute replacement driver who likely drank alcohol the night before or the morning of the accident.
The crash killed Feld and his two passengers: Diana Robles, 28, and her aunt, 60-year-old Ofelia Perez, both of Yuma, Ariz.
The three were returning from Yankee Boy Basin on Camp Bird Road near Ouray on Sept. 12, 2022. Feld, driving the 2022 Jeep Gladiator, was employed by Colorado West Jeep Rentals and Tours of Ouray.
The Jeep traveled off the side of Camp Bird Road and rolled during a 260-foot descent to the canyon floor. Feld was ejected, the two woman remained the Jeep due to their seatbelts. The Jeep came to rest on its roof near the northern bank of Canyon Creek.
A 2022 Jeep Gladiator is lifted by a heavy duty tow truck from the canyon floor back to Camp Bird Road outside Ouray on Sept 13, the day after it slid from the road in an accident that killed its local driver and two women from Arizona who were on a commercial tour.
Ouray County Plaindealer
Attorneys representing Robles's parents and Perez's spouse filed a wrongful death lawsuit against Fehd's estate, the tour company, and the tour company's ownership in 2024. In an amended complaint, those attorneys claim Fehd's blood-alcohol content (BAC) measured 0.027% following a post-mortem blood draw.
"There was alcohol in Mr. Fehd's system at the time of the crash," the complaint reads. "The BAC was calculated well after the crash thus the real BAC was likely much higher at the time the crash occurred."
Colorado legal limit for alcohol impairment is 0.08%.
The lawsuit also cites communications revealed by Colorado State Patrol investigators who examined Fehd's cell phone. According to data inside it, Fehd spoke by Zoom conference and text with members of an Alcoholics Anonymous group in Austin, Texas, for nearly an hour earlier that morning. Fehd is originally from Austin and moved to Colorado in 2002, according to the lawsuit.
Fehd's phone also contained a message from the tour company's ownership 22 minutes before the four-hour Robles-Perez tour was scheduled to begin at 8 a.m., according to the lawsuit.
"Rich isnot (sic) here. He is usually making breakfast. I would say he is going to be a noshow (sic)," one of the tour's owners texted Fehd. Fehd responded, "I'm on my way, getting dressed."
A tour company Jeep sits near Canyon Creek after traveling off a cliff on Camp Bird Road in September 2022. Three people were killed in the crash. The families of two women who were passengers in the tour are suing the driver's estate, the tour company, and its ownership.
Colorado State Patrol
In their lawsuit, the plaintiffs claim tour company ownership knowingly employed Fehd despite alleged drinking problems, as reported by the Grand Junction Sentinel.
The most recent legal activity in the civil case shows an exchange of motions between the two sides in an attempt to determine the tour company ownership's liability for the fatal crash.
Also from the Grand Junction Sentinel, a Colorado State Patrol investigative report on the accident found neither speed nor reckless driving were factors in the crash, and the alcohol in Fehd's system postmortem was due to decomposition and delay of refrigeration immediately after the crash.
Fehd "drove straight off the road and over a cliff without any indication of evasive maneuvers or emergency braking," the lawsuit claims.
Fehd, aside from piloting the Jeep tours, also drove and volunteered for the Ouray Mountain Rescue Team, that agency confirmed after the crash.
The wrongful death case is being heard by a Denver federal court judge. The two sides have been given a year to exchange evidence in the case.
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