Fort Collins – Her body and academic career are broken and may never recover from the night she tried to enforce the ideals of responsible drinking at Colorado State University.
Holly Truhlar was run over by a car driven by a drunken student visiting CSU’s Phi Delta Theta house last October, only a few weeks after the drinking-related death of sophomore Samantha Spady.
Spady’s death ushered in several reforms on the CSU campus, including fraternities pledging to rid their houses of alcohol.
But all the efforts to tone down the influence of alcohol on campus didn’t prevent the events of Oct. 29, 2004.
“She was almost killed trying to do the right thing,” said Holly’s mother, Doris Truhlar. “She tried to stop him from hurting someone else, and look what happened.”
The car, driven by 22-year-old Justin Holle, dragged Truhlar several feet. She received a broken pelvis, a shattered knee, and numerous cuts and bruises.
The accident also scrapped off skin, about the size of a softball, from her left forehead and left her with a bruised brain. The 22-year-old Truhlar often can’t remember simple conversations and has had to scuttle two efforts to finish school.
Truhlar’s hopes of attending law school also are in jeopardy. “It’s taking so long now, but I’m trying to finish school,” she said. “I really want to move on.”
Holle is serving a nine-month sentence at the Larimer County Jail after pleading guilty to vehicular assault and leaving the scene of an accident.
Holle also faces five years on probation, community service and intensive alcohol rehabilitation. He did not respond to requests for an interview.
Holle had been drinking heavily that day at a party Greeks attended at a Fort Collins nightclub, he admitted during his sentencing in August.
Back at the fraternity house, several people tried to stop him from driving. The driver’s side door of the car was open, and Truhlar tried to match the speed of the car so the door wouldn’t hit her while she implored Holle to stop.
Holle accelerated, and the door hit her and knocked her down. The car’s front left tire ran over her, and she was dragged another 10 to 15 feet.
“I was in shock, and it felt like my whole head had been smashed in,” Truhlar recalled.
The evening had started out safely enough.
Truhlar and her sorority sisters, along with members of three other Greek organizations – including Phi Delta Theta – went to the club in buses and followed plans to go home in cars driven by sober drivers.
The media storm surrounding Spady’s death had made an impression: “We knew what happened to Samantha Spady and we were going to take measures to prevent that,” Truhlar said.
The Truhlars are bitter, however, over the actions of the fraternity after the accident. They claim fraternity members tried to shield Holle from police because they were worried the incident would shine a harsh light on Greek life so soon after Spady’s death.
“I think their first reaction was not to get into trouble,” Holly Truhlar said.
Fort Collins police officers investigating the accident also said they were frustrated at the lack of information given by both fraternity and sorority members at the scene, according to reports. Those at the scene initially told officers they hadn’t seen anything.
The actions of the Phi Delta members, along with the revelation that they had been drinking at the house before the party in Fort Collins, led to the fraternity’s being put on social probation earlier this summer by the university’s Greek council.
Several members have also been suspended from the organization.
Since then, the frat members have maintained a 3.0 grade- point average and accepted a live-in adviser, said Ric Scannell, a spokesman for the national Phi Delta chapter.
“Colorado Gamma’s leadership has demonstrated the initiative and the ability to rectify the situation and prevent another incident from happening,” Scannell said.
In August, Holle told Larimer County District Judge Daniel Kaup that he was dedicated to remaining sober. Holle had six alcohol-related charges in a two-year period and had another one a month after the CSU incident, according to court records.
“I got myself into this situation,” Holle told the court. “I can only take the necessary steps to do my best to resolve the situation and rectify any problems I have caused for both my family as well as the victim’s family.”
Holly Truhlar said she is also re-evaluating her future, including whether to step in should she see another drunk get behind the wheel of a car.
“Certainly if I saw someone drinking and driving, I’d tell them not to drive,” she said. “I just don’t think I’d get that close to the situation again.”
Staff writer Monte Whaley can be reached at 720-929-0907 or mwhaley@denverpost.com.
