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Students' Deaths Stun Campus
The Denver Post Feature Story
Sept. 18, 2001
By Coleman Cornelius LARAMIE, Wyo. - The University of Wyoming was numbed by tragedy Monday as the campus coped with the deaths of eight members of the school's cross-country team and the injury of a ninth student in a head-on collision south of town. It was Wyoming's worst automobile accident in memory, authorities said. "Put this on the top of what happened last week, and it's devastating. It's an unbelievably difficult time," said Lee Moon, UW athletics director. In the UW track office, coaches neatly folded and lined up the gold-and-brown uniforms of the young runners who were killed. Families planned to gather the uniforms. Authorities on Monday were investigating the possibility that one vehicle's driver, the collision's only survivor, had been drinking or had dozed off at the wheel before the crash occurred about 1:30 a.m. Sunday on U.S. 287. The fatal wreck was on a long curve near the Tie Siding post office. "My main interest at this point is to see whether alcohol was in the system," said Lt. Mike Johnson of the Wyoming Highway Patrol. "I'm not accusing or suggesting alcohol at this point. We won't know that until we get testing back." Johnson ferried blood samples to a Cheyenne laboratory for analysis. Test results are expected in about two weeks, he said. The lieutenant said that, if it's appropriate, he will submit results of the crash investigation to the Albany County prosecutor, who would determine whether criminal charges were warranted. At the time of the crash, eight members of the UW men's cross-country team were crammed into a 1990 Jeep Wagoneer, which is designed to seat five. They were heading north on U.S. 287 about 17 miles south of Laramie. Authorities said they thought the victims, ages 19 to 21, were returning from Fort Collins. The surviving student, Clinton Haskins, a 21-year-old senior from Maybell who is on the UW rodeo team, was driving south in a 1995 Chevrolet Silverado, a four-door, dual-wheel pickup. The southbound Silverado drifted into the northbound lane, Johnson said, and the front passenger side of the truck smashed into the front passenger side of the Wagoneer. Authorities said they thought Haskins was headed to his family's home on Colorado's Western Slope. The driver of the Wagoneer, 20-year-old Nicholas Schabron of Laramie, and his front passenger were wearing seat belts, investigators said. But the force of the collision was so great the seat belts were ripped apart as the vehicle's top was sheared off, officials said. All of the Wagoneer's occupants except Schabron were ejected, and they landed at least 100 yards from the vehicle. All died immediately, said Justin Stephens, deputy coroner for Albany County. Investigators could not immediately estimate vehicle speeds. The posted speed limit is 65 mph, although drivers often speed on the empty stretch of two-lane highway known for heavy truck traffic. Johnson said the weather was clear and the road was dry at the time of the accident. Those who responded to the scene said the mangled wreckage of the two vehicles was the worst they could remember. Haskins, who also was wearing a seat belt, was moved out of the intensive care unit at Ivinson Memorial Hospital in Laramie on Monday, and his condition, listed as serious, was improving, said Jeffrey Feike, hospital president and chief executive officer. Haskins had been in and out of consciousness, Feike said. "We're very optimistic and hopeful, that's why he's being moved out of the ICU," Feike said. "But I don't think he's necessarily out of the woods yet." Moon, UW athletic director, spent Monday consoling coaches and students, and talking by phone to the parents of the victims, all members of the school's cross-country and track teams. "To lose eight in one car on one team, I can't put into words how difficult it is," Moon said. "The loss of eight students and the injury of a ninth is a terrible blow to the University of Wyoming community," president Philip Dubois said in a prepared statement. "These were people we knew, whose families we know, members of the University of Wyoming family - young men who showed great promise for the future." The cross-country team, which had 12 members, is left with four, Moon said. The students killed met with teammates Saturday morning for a 7- to 12-mile run, according to a bulletin board in the UW athletic complex. Posted on the board were mileages the victims had recently run, their times at meets and their training schedules. On one roster, someone had penciled tiny hearts next to the names of the dead. Across campus, students and faculty said they were stunned by the deaths after last week's terrorist attacks in New York and Washington, D.C. "With everything that's happened in the past week, everyone is so emotionally drained," said Katie Baker, 20, who studied in the UW student union. Members of the Sigma Phi Epsilon fraternity, of which victim Shane Shatto of Douglas, Wyo., was a member, helped organize a candlelight vigil on the campus Monday night. The fraternity hung a huge banner from its house that said, "We Love You Shane."
"He was one of the best brothers a guy could have," said Curt Mayer, 19. "He was always running around with a smile."
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