A man was killed and three people, including two children, were injured Tuesday morning after the driver of a pickup truck tried to pass a tractor-trailer on the shoulder of Interstate 76, then drove through a guardrail and crashed the pickup on its top on York Street in Adams County, authorities say.
The man, who was not wearing a seat belt, was ejected during the crash and was found 10 feet from the pickup, said Sgt. Rob Madden, spokesman for the Colorado State Patrol. The man was pronounced dead at the scene.
A woman, who was also not wearing her seat belt, was seriously injured during the crash and was taken to a hospital. Two grade school-aged children, who were in the back seat of the extended-cab pickup, were also injured and taken to a hospital.
“The driver was weaving through traffic and passing in a very aggressive manner,” Madden said.
It’s unclear whether the man or the woman, who have not been identified, was driving the black Nissan Frontier when the crash happened.
The crash happened at 7:25 a.m., Madden said. Several witnesses said the pickup truck was speeding west on I-76, passing cars on the shoulder of the highway.
A semi was in the passing lane of the highway when the driver zipped by it on the shoulder of the highway, Madden said.
The driver lost control of the pickup as it approached the bridge over York Street, broke through the metal cables of a guardrail and went airborne. The pickup was twisting in the air before it slammed on its roof.
The roof of the truck collapsed, Madden said. The semi, which was not struck during the crash, did not stop. Several other witnesses did stop and gave their accounts of the crash, he said.
Madden said he does not know the relationships of the people in the truck. Authorities are still trying to identify the man who was killed.
The crash remains under investigation.
