Three University of Wyoming swimmers killed in highway crash in Colorado

Three members of the University of Wyoming swimming and diving team were killed in a highway crash in northern Colorado.

The crash occurred Thursday afternoon on US 287, about 10 miles south of the Wyoming-Colorado line between Laramie and Fort Collins, Colorado.

The crash injured two other team members who were expected to survive, according to a statement from the University of Wyoming.

The crash occurred when the driver of the Toyota RAV4 SUV with four others in the car swerved and left the sidewalk. The vehicle rolled over several times, the statement said.

Two people were turned away. 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 a veterinary science major from Birmingham, Alabama.

The two injured men, 20 and 21, were taken to hospitals, according to a statement from the Colorado State Patrol.

The SUV was heading south and apparently was not on an official team trip, the patrol statement said.

The accident was investigated.

“We are heartbroken by 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.

In 2001, a head-on collision with a drunk driver on the same highway killed eight members of the University of Wyoming cross-country team. Clint Haskins, also a student at the University of Wyoming, swerved into the lane in front of the northbound SUV.

Haskins was the only survivor of the crash 15 miles south of Laramie. He pleaded guilty to aggravated vehicular homicide and was released on parole after nine and a half years in prison.