Ex-Eagle Co. official crashes motorcycle

ROUTT COUNTY ” Former Eagle County commissioner Tom Stone is in a Denver hospital after he hit a deer while riding his motorcycle Monday around 5 p.m.

Tom Stone was riding his Harley Davidson Road King on Highway 134 when he hit a deer, he said in a telephone interview from his hospital bed.

“I’m expecting a full recovery, but it could take a while,” Stone said.

Stone, a Republican who served two terms ending in 2006, was wearing a helmet and was lucky to be alive, he said. He broke his collarbone, his shoulder blade, seven ribs and punctured his lung, he said. He’s in the intensive care unit because doctors fear he could get pneumonia, he said.

Stone has trouble moving and breathing and did not know when he would leave the hospital, he said.

“I haven’t seen the bike ” I don’t know what kind of shape it’s in,” Stone said. “I guess the deer died.”

Stone has ridden a motorcycle for 10 years and Monday he was with a group and an instructor who was teaching them how to ride safely, he said.

Stone was riding on the windy Gore Pass between Yampa and Kremmling, he said.