TUNGSTEN VALLEY - “She could’ve lived,” he said of the yearling female bear struck around 5 p.m. on August 18 on Boulder Canyon Drive. “If the driver who hit her had been going the speed limit of 45 mph, she could’ve gone on to meander over to the creek and be on her way.”

Instead, Deputy Dan Pratt, an eight-year veteran with the Boulder County Sheriff’s Office, had to perform a duty directed by fate and consultation with Officer Sam Peterson of Colorado Parks and Wildlife. “It’s not what I wake up to do in the mornings. Especially not a beautiful creature like a bear that is already struggling to coexist with increasing human interactions.”

Two civilians had earlier dragged her still-breathing body off the asphalt after that motorist failed to stop. She was named Betty by Deputy Cox—also an eight-year veteran of the Boulder County Sheriff’s Office. “The driver had to be going at least 15-20 miles over the limit,” Deputy Pratt sighed. “She was a beautiful creature suffering because a motorist was trying to save a few minutes and failed to stop.”

Indeed, it was not what Deputy Pratt and Deputy Cox had planned for their day in mountain law enforcement. “I was forced to euthanize her to spare her suffering,” he repeated. Many mountain residents may sympathize with the tragic situation in which Deputy Pratt found himself that day.

“I thought after her death that traffic enforcement was the best way to help our wildlife and community members. Since that day, I’ve made it my priority, supported by my supervisors, to run speeding enforcement in the Canyon, especially around mile marker 31. Routinely, I stop people going twenty miles over the limit. Every single day, I catch people driving at least 60 mph.”

“When I give someone a ticket,” the deputy continued, “I tell them, I’m doing my job for highway safety. I do it to prevent animal-vehicle and motorist-to-motorist collisions. I’d rather hand out a million speeding tickets than have to tell a parent that their child is dead.”

Betty was Deputy Pratt’s second tragedy that day. Earlier, a bear had been struck in North St. Vrain. Since then, he says he has been focused on slowing down speeders in the area.

“The other morning, I stopped a driver. He said that he was in a hurry, but asked me what happened to the bear. ‘I had to euthanize her,’” he says he responded, as he handed the motorist a summons.

“Then on the following Sunday, I stopped a sixty-year-old man for speeding, ‘My bad,’ he said, ‘I’ve been driving up Boulder Canyon for thirty years, but I’ve never seen a cop on a Sunday morning.’”

Despite the intensity of speeding violations on Boulder Canyon, Deputy Pratt says he loves his job of mountain policing. “Boulder County is a really nice place to work. People come up here to hike, fish, and four-wheel drive in their Jeeps, and I see them at the B&F. We’re just trying to run more speed enforcement to slow people down.”

When asked about possibly installing speed enforcement cameras in Boulder Canyon, he says, “They have them on the flat portion of Highway 119, and since it is a state highway, I don’t know of any plans. They are a safety tool to reduce traffic speeds. There’s a misbelief that photo radar is a moneymaker. We really just want you to slow down.”

Sometimes, he stops a motorist who apologizes, to which he reassures them that there’s no need. “Just doing my job,” he quips as he hands them a ticket. When it comes to speeding, he says, “It’s not just an animal on the road. Often, a speeding motorist will swerve right into an oncoming vehicle....Traffic accidents are common in Boulder Canyon, and I hope this will reduce them."

Law enforcement’s emphasis on slowing down is supported by physics, as conveyed by The Mountain-Ear’s science columnist Frank Sanders. “Cars, trucks, and motorcycles are so fast, smooth, and powerful that many drivers may not appreciate what their speeds mean.”

“The canyon speed limit of 45 mph might not seem fast,” he explains, “but you’re moving 66 feet every second. That’s the length of a house lot. At 65 mph, you’re covering 95 feet per second, a third the length of a football field. If it takes a single second for a driver to see something and begin braking and steering, these are the distances you cover. I emphasize, that’s to merely begin decelerating and maneuvering, not to accomplish them.”

Sanders adds, “And here’s the other thing that no one ever seems to note about speeding. Collisions are powered by the kinetic energy of vehicles, which does not increase in proportion to speed. Rather, collision energy increases with speed squared. A mere 44 percent velocity increase, such as from 45 to 65 mph, actually doubles collision energy. Collision energy is a mercilessly squared, vectored killer as speed increases.” Sanders concludes, “As a physicist, I say, to save your or someone else’s life, and animal life, try slowing down a little.”

Editor's note: The opinions expressed in this article are the author's own and do not reflect the view of The Mountain-Ear.