Three members of the University of Wyoming’s swimming and diving team died Thursday afternoon in a single-car crash on a Colorado highway, the school announced.
Freshman Carson Muir, sophomore Charlie Clark and junior Luke Slabber died in the crash, which took place about 10 miles south of the Wyoming-Colorado border on U.S. Highway 287. Two other members of the Wyoming swimming and diving team suffered non-life-threatening injuries in the crash.
“My thoughts and prayers are with our swimming and diving student-athletes, coaches, families and friends,” Cowboys Athletic Director Tom Burman said in a statement. “It is difficult to lose members of our University of Wyoming family, and we mourn the loss of these student-athletes. We have counseling services available to our student-athletes and coaches in our time of need.”
Advertisement
According to the school statement and a release by the Colorado State Patrol, the driver of the Toyota RAV4 swerved and the vehicle went off the road on a stretch of highway between Livermore and Virginia Dale. The car was headed southbound on the highway and was not being driven on a team-related trip.
“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,” Wyoming President Ed Seidel said in a statement.
The crash happened on the same highway where eight members of the Wyoming cross-country team died in a 2001 crash that took place when a drunk driver — also a Wyoming student — veered into oncoming traffic about 15 miles south of Laramie.
According to a letter to the editor published in the Coloradoan in November, the stretch of Highway 287 between Fort Collins and the Wyoming border is nicknamed the “Highway of Death.” The Colorado Department of Transportation said in October that there had been 15 fatal crashes along the 30-mile stretch over the previous five years. The agency has begun a safety study of the highway.
The Wyoming women’s swimming and diving team is competing this week at the Mountain West championships in Houston. Coach Dave Denniston told SwimSwam his team was “devastated.”
ncG1vNJzZmivp6x7uK3SoaCnn6Sku7G70q1lnKedZMCxu9GtqmhqYGeBcHyRaGlsZ6euvK61zaBkrK%2BZorqmvtJmm6KdXZi%2For%2FHaA%3D%3D