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A child who was buckled in a safety seat and a Craig man died in a head-on collision with a propane truck Friday afternoon on U.S. Highway 40 about 5 miles west of Maybell.

Mike Deyo was ejected from the sport utility vehicle and pronounced dead at the scene. Three others were in the SUV heading eastbound when the driver, Jody Gregory, 29, of Oak Creek told police he fell asleep at the wheel.

Terry Billings, the driver of the propane tanker truck, told police that after the collision, he pulled Gregory from the vehicle. Colorado State Trooper Mark Marion said Billings' hometown and age are unknown.

Gregory's wife, Marsha, also was ejected from the vehicle. Maybell Volunteer Ambulance transported her to The Memorial Hospital where a Flight for Life helicopter transported her to St. Mary's Hospital in Grand Junction. She had severe head injuries "and it is very up in the air whether she will make it," Marion said.

Marsha Gregory was in critical condition when she left TMH, TMH Public Relations director Pam Thompson said.

The charred remains of the SUV lay for hours in the westbound ditch as the Moffat County Hazardous Materials Team cooled off the tanker truck by spraying it down with water. Though the truck was reportedly empty of propane, leaking fumes from behind the truck continued to burn well after the accident. Police expected Highway 40 to be closed until about midnight Friday.

Off-duty Moffat County Sheriff's Sgt. Tim Jantz of Maybell appeared on the scene early and pulled Marsha Gregory away from the fiery wreck and disbanded a group of about 20 onlookers who may have been hurt as the flames reared up, said Sgt. Duane Bradley of the Colorado State Patrol.

Jantz said emergency responders were distraught because they couldn't enter the burning vehicle to rescue the other passenger.

"We had to get the fire down before going in," he said. "They were really disturbed by that, but we had to do it."

Simultaneous calls for car accidents came while much of Craig and Moffat County's law enforcement and emergency vehicles were on site at the Maybell accident. At about 3:30 p.m. police received a call for a motorcycle crash on Moffat County County Road 23. About a half hour later, police got a call that a motorist hit a deer on MCR 7.

The Friday accident makes 14 fatalities in recent weeks in the multi-county jurisdiction, Brad27ley said.