Barbara Lawlor

Nederland

The Nederland Fire Protection District firefighters were called out at 7 a.m. Monday, June 17, on a report of an orange Honda Element 50 feet down an embankment off West Magnolia Road. When they arrived, no one was around or in the vehicle, which was on its side and the doors flung open.

A path was strewn with what appeared to be camping debris. The Boulder County Sheriff's Officers on scene began their investigation, beginning with tracing the Texas license plates.

A few hours later, another call sent the NFPD firefighters to the 30-mile marker of Boulder Canyon where a Honda was on the side of the creek embankment, stopped by a tree, before it rolled into the raging snowmelt waters of Boulder Creek.

Four young men from Thornton were on their way into the mountains for a day of hiking when they went rounded a curve during a thunderstorm, hit a puddle spread across the road and hydroplaned across the highway and down the slope. The driver said he opened the door to the vehicle and looked down at the swollen swift water just feet below him and carefully scrambled to safety. They were lucky.

The driver said he was driving the speed limit but had bald tires that just didn't grip the road in the turn.The vehicle appeared to be drivable once it was pulled back up onto safe ground.