2 guardsmen die in four-car crash
Two Army National Guardsmen were killed Monday in a four-car crash on icy roads in Costilla County, the Colorado State Patrol said.
About 10 a.m., Sgt. Arnold Harp, 32, of Colorado Springs, was the passenger in a westbound Dodge Durango on Colorado 160, 17 miles east of Fort Garland, driven by Sgt. 1st Class Robert Orta, 37 of Pueblo West. Orta was attempting to pass a pickup truck hauling an empty trailer when he lost control and struck the driver’s side of the trailer, the patrol said.
The Durango then collided with another pickup truck hauling a trailer full of junk steel and skidded broadside into the path of a semitrailer. The semi hit the Durango on the passenger’s side.
Harp and Orta were pronounced dead at the scene. No other injuries were reported. The State Patrol has ruled out alcohol and drugs as factors in the crash.
