Three members of the University of Wyoming swim team were killed Thursday afternoon in a single-vehicle crash in northern Colorado.
The Colorado State Patrol said the wreck happened at about 2:45 p.m. near the intersection of U.S. 287 and Red Mountain Road in Larimer County. The vehicle that crashed was a Toyota RAV4 carrying five people.
The person driving the SUV drove off the left shoulder and the vehicle rolled several times, ejecting two occupants, according to the State Patrol.
The crash killed Charlie Clark, 19, a sophomore psychology major from Las Vegas; Luke Slabber, 21, a junior studying construction management from Cape Town, South Africa; and Carson Muir, 18, a freshman on the women’s team and an animal and veterinary sciences major from Birmingham, Alabama.
The two other people in the car, two men, suffered non-life-threatening injuries, according to the State Patrol. One of the survivors was driving the SUV.
“They were not believed to be traveling for an official school function at the time of the crash,” the State Patrol said in a news release. “The crash is being investigated by the Colorado State Patrol and is still considered to be in its early stages. The cause and other possible factors remains under investigation.”
The State Patrol said Friday afternoon that its preliminary information revealed “a vehicle in front of the Toyota RAV4 slowed, possibly to turn left onto Red Mountain Road. The driver of the Toyota RAV4 swerved left, driving off the shoulder of the road and the vehicle rolled multiple times.”
Further information on the wreck wasn’t immediately released.
University of Wyoming swim coach Dave Denniston told SwimSwam, a swimming news site, that his team is “devastated.”
“We are heartsick at the news of this terrible tragedy for our university, our state, our student-athlete community and, most importantly, the families and friends of these young people,” University of Wyoming President Ed Seidel said in the statement.
The weather was fair and conditions clear at the time on the often busy, two- and three-lane highway that winds through the scenic Rocky Mountain foothills. Typical hazards include blind curves, wildlife, passing vehicles and traffic entering and exiting at intersections.
University of Wyoming students often take the road for shopping, socializing and entertainment in Fort Collins and Denver.
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In 2001, a head-on crash with a drunken driver on the same highway killed eight members of the University of Wyoming cross-country team. Clint Haskins, also a University of Wyoming student, swerved into the lane in front of the northbound sport utility vehicle.
Haskins was the only survivor of that crash 15 miles south of Laramie. He pleaded guilty to aggravated vehicular homicide and was paroled after 9 1/2 years in prison.
The crash days after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks shocked the state and helped lead to safety improvements on the highway in Wyoming.
In 2021, three University of Wyoming students were killed when their car slid on icy pavement and was struck by an oncoming vehicle near the scene of Thursday’s wreck.
Portions of the road in Colorado have above-average crash rates — making the highway a good candidate for more safety improvements, according to a summary of a 2023 Colorado Department of Transportation report.
The same 30-mile section from north of Fort Collins to the Wyoming line where the crash occurred has had 570 crashes, including 15 fatal wrecks, in the past five years, according to the summary.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.