Brothers walk away from crash

EL JEBEL — Three teenage brothers walked away from a rollover accident Monday after their brakes failed while heading down a steep hill into El Jebel.

The brothers, one 17-year-old and 15-year-old twins, were on El Jebel Road when the driver felt he was coming up too quickly on a pickup in front of him, according to their father, who rushed to the scene from a construction site in Missouri Heights. The father conveyed the story to The Aspen Times, asking that the family remain anonymous.

The driver applied the brakes but couldn't slow the car, then took his foot off the gas and kept trying the brakes to no avail, their father said. In the split second he had to react, he pushed in the clutch, but the car was freewheeling and gaining speed.

The driver swerved into the opposite lane to try to go around the pickup. The front wheel fell into the ditch, and the Subaru Legacy ran up on the hillside embankment, causing the car to roll onto its top and scoot down the county road. A guardrail prevented the car from going over the cliffside.

The dad said all three sons were wearing seatbelts. "Fortunately, nobody's hurt really bad," he said. "I really don't care about the car."

Scrapes were visible on one of the boys. None needed a ride from the Basalt ambulances that responded.

A witness told emergency personnel he thought two other boys exited the car and fled. The accident happened around 4:30 p.m. Traffic was reduced to one lane while an Eagle County sheriff's deputy and state trooper investigated.

The father said a mechanic recently checked the car and advised replacing the brakes. He was going to show his sons how to perform the work this week.

A separate accident on the Basalt bypass snarled downvalley-bound commuter traffic on Highway 82 about an hour later. The minor accident didn't result in injuries, but one lane of the highway closed briefly, around 5:45 p.m.