Broadside crash kills Littleton man
By Hector Gutierrez, Rocky Mountain News (Contact)
Published August 28, 2008 at 12:05 a.m.
One man was killed Wednesday and two other people were injured when a truck and a sedan collided at an intersection in south Jefferson County.
State troopers said they think the motorist, who was killed, drove through a red light in his 2002 Dodge Stratus sedan and was broadsided by a Dodge Ram truck. The victim was identified as Bradley J. Miller, 24, of Littleton. Although Miller was restrained in his seat he suffered major injuries and died at the scene, troopers said.
His passenger, Krystle C. Rankin, 25, of Fort Collins, suffered serious injuries and was taken to Swedish Medical Center, troopers said. Rankin also was restrained.
Miller and Rankin had been traveling east about 10:30 a.m. on West Bowles Avenue and had stopped at a red light at South Simms Street, troopers said. Meantime, a motorist driving the pickup was heading south on Simms Street with the green light.
Troopers said Miller then drove against the red light and into the path of the oncoming pickup. The truck plowed into the left side of Miller's Stratus. Troopers were trying to figure out why Miller drove through the red light after having stopped.
The pickup driver, a 20-year- old man from Littleton, suffered only minor injuries and was not hospitalized.
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August 28, 2008
2:07 a.m.
Suggest removal
warrengfunk7 writes:
You know how you can be stopped at a red light and be looking over at the passenger, in heavy conversation and you can see a car next to you only visible in your peripheral vision. Well, say that car you see in your peripheral vision moves forward a little bit, or your foot eases off the break slightly and your car moves forward a little bit, that car next to you looks like it is going, so the light must be green, right? Wrong. This can lead to cars ramming into cars in front of them, but if no cars are in front of them at the light, they would go into the intersection.
He must have thought it was time to go, for some reason. I have caught myself almost doing it before. I have been a passenger in a car when someone else actually did it. They were stopped at a red light, waiting to make a left turn, were talking and not paying close enough attention, then suddenly went through the red light (after being stopped at it), but not on purpose, they thought it was green for some reason. They weren't paying attention to the light, they "assumed" it had turned green.
It's called human error. It can happen to the best of us and it can happen to any of us. I hope it doesn't happen to anyone reading this, but if we could control it, it would never happen - no would it?
August 28, 2008
2:26 p.m.
Suggest removal
krvus writes:
It's a cursed intersection!! Not too long ago a motorcycle rider was killed in the same manner, but while evading police. Sad to hear.