DENVER (KDVR) — A man and his fiancée who were driving in the Colorado mountains say a pothole nearly cost them their lives.
The whole incident was captured on the dash camera of a vehicle behind them.
That hole, they say, caused the camper trailer they were pulling to spin out of control. To make matters worse, they are saying they were cited for driving carelessly, even though they say they were not breaking any laws.
‘I thought I was going to die’
The two told FOX31 they were heading east on Interstate 70 toward Denver, near Loveland Ski Area, when all of sudden they found themselves spinning out of control.
Leslie Brock was sitting in the front passenger seat.
“We were just cruising along and next thing you, know the trailer starts to jerk and it makes us lose absolute control and it was very scary. I thought I was going to die,” Brock said.
Brock and her fiancé, Thomas Kuemmel, are from Las Vegas and were on their way to Colorado Springs. Kuemmel said he was driving at or below the speed limit when something went terribly wrong.
“There was a big jerk, and I feel that the trailer was pushing on the truck and then I started swerving out of control and spinning,” Kuemmel said.
Driver cited — and a pothole is later fixed
Then, Kuemmel said the unexpected happened again. Colorado State Patrol cited Kuemmel with careless driving.
Kuemmel said he tried to explain to state troopers that large potholes near Loveland Ski Area caused the crash. It’s the same area where, two days later, the Colorado Department of Transportation shut down the highway to repair a large pothole.
FOX31 was not able to confirm if it was the same exact pothole that caused Kuemmel’s crash, but the couple said fixing the potholes sooner could have prevented their crash.
FOX31 contacted Colorado State Patrol regarding the citation.
“When someone does not agree with a citation, both sides can appear in court and present the information and evidence before a judge, who would then make a decision in the case,” CSP Public Information Officer Gary Cutler said.
FOX31 also contacted CDOT, which referred to State Patrol about the incident. CDOT did say Colorado has a process for motorists to file claims when vehicles are damaged.
For now, the couple from Nevada is just glad to be alive.