Colorado family calls for wildlife fencing along highway after father killed in crash with elk
It only takes an instant for a car crash to take a life, and now a Castle Rock family hopes their missing member's legacy saves someone else.
"We shared a life," said Nancy Rodriguez, while holding a picture of her husband Victor and their family, "a wonderful life, a no-regrets life."
Victor and Nancy Rodriguez would have been married 55 years this Friday.
"He was a phenomenal father. Not good father, phenomenal," Nancy Rodriguez said.
Born in Cuba, Victor Rodriguez immigrated to the U.S. in 1962. He worked as a taxi and limo driver and took English classes at night before meeting Nancy. Victor went on to get a college degree and have a career as a pharmaceutical representative.
Victor and Nancy have three children and four grandchildren, with another on the way. The family lived in the Chicago area for most of their lives but relocated to Colorado in recent years.
"My dad was my person," Mary Rodriguez said while tearing up, "a great great father and a great friend. My dad was a very generous, loving, kind man."
On Sept. 29, the couple were returning from a weekend trip to the mountains. Around 8:30 p.m. they were just minutes from home, driving southbound on Highway 85 between Daniels Park Road and Happy Canyon Road.
"He commented on how beautiful the Castle Rock lights were at night and that was the last thing he said to me. And then there was this tremendous bang crash," Nancy Rodriguez said.
A 700-pound cow elk that had been hit by an oncoming car crashed through their windshield from above. Its head lay on Nancy.
"I couldn't see him because the airbag was between us and I was calling him, I was calling him, 'Victor! Victor! Are you okay?' and there was total silence," Nancy Rodriguez said.
Nancy had minor injuries, but 81-year-old Victor was killed instantly.
Their daughter Mary received an SOS alert from her mother's phone at the time of the crash and soon learned the devastating news from her brother.
"He said 'Mary I'm just gonna tell you, dad's gone.' And I lost it," Mary Rodriguez said.
The family struggled to come to terms with Victor's sudden death.
"To have that level of gruesome, I can't get that out of my head," Nancy Rodriguez said. "This was so abrupt, it was so aggressive, for a gentle man, for a good man to die like this."
"I couldn't believe it; that something so horrific could happen to my dad," Mary Rodriguez said.
In the wake of the tragedy, Mary started a petition to add wildlife fencing along Highway 85 from E-470 through Castle Rock, as well as underpass wildlife crossings. She says her dad was an animal lover and would not want the elk's migration patterns to be disturbed.
"The more I started to research and look at articles and try to dig up statistics I started to see that this is not an isolated event," Mary Rodriguez said.
According to the Colorado Department of Transportation, there have been over 3,000 car crashes involving wild animals in Douglas County since 2010.
Online, hundreds expressed support for the petition and shared other safety concerns about Highway 85, including a lack of a median and poor lighting.
"The petition was to start spreading awareness and getting feedback from the community on what their thoughts were and as it turns out we're not alone in this concern that we have," Mary Rodriguez said.
The Rodriguez family has already been in contact with Douglas County commissioners and CDOT about the changes they want to see.
"As they say, it's gonna take a village, and I believe that it will," Mary Rodriguez said.
"I thought, 'her dad's talking to her.' Her dad's saying 'take my death and turn it into something to help other people and animals,' the animals he loved so much," Nancy Rodriguez said.