Colorado snowplow driver charged in deadly icy crash with youth hockey team
The driver of a Colorado Department of Transportation snowplow, who's accused of causing a deadly crash involving a van with a girls' hockey team, has now been charged with multiple crimes related to that crash.
The crash happened just before 9 a.m. on Jan. 29 on Interstate 70 about two miles east of the Eisenhower-Johnson Memorial Tunnel in Clear Creek County. According to Colorado State Patrol, the plow was driving on the icy highway when the driver lost control and crashed into two cars and then the Sprinter van, sending the van off the side of the highway.
The driver of the van and father of one of the girls on the team, Manny Lorenzana, was killed. Ten people in total were in the van, seven of whom were taken to the hospital by ambulance. Four of those were children, and three were adults. One of the girls was rushed by medical helicopter to a trauma center with critical injuries.
The girls played for the California-based Santa Clarita Lady Flyers team, whose players are typically 11 and 12 years old, but can include some younger players. They had a game scheduled that morning in a tournament run by the Western Girls Hockey League at the Edge Ice Arena in Littleton.
On Thursday, CSP announced that 29-year-old Colton A. Wiedman has been charged with the following:
- Careless driving causing death, a class 1 traffic misdemeanor;
- Four counts of careless driving causing serious bodily injury, a class 1 traffic misdemeanor;
- Three counts of careless driving causing bodily injury, a class 1 traffic misdemeanor;
- Failure to drive in a designated lane a class A traffic infraction.
Because Wiedman has only been charged with misdemeanors and a traffic infraction, he was ticketed the day of the crash and not arrested.
He's due in Clear Creek County Court on May 5 for his arraignment. No attorney information for him was available in court records on Thursday, and no contact information for Wiedman was immediately available through public records.
