GRAND JUNCTION – One person was injured and three vehicles were severely damaged when a tractor-trailer drifted into a parking area alongside Interstate 70 on Thursday morning.
Judith Thomas, 28, of Grants Pass, Ore., was driving eastbound about 4:45 a.m. when she drifted off the right side of the road and struck a parked tractor-trailer whose driver was asleep inside, according to the Colorado State Patrol. Thomas’ truck then struck a parked pickup, also with a person sleeping inside.
MORE BRIEFS
PUEBLO
Two inmates on loose from county jail
Authorities were searching Thursday for two Pueblo County Jail inmates who escaped by crawling through a vent and sliding down the building on bedsheets.
Daniel Ernesto Smith, 22, held on suspicion of first-degree kidnapping, and Scott Anthony Gomez, 21, a state Department of Corrections prisoner, broke out Wednesday night, officials said.
Authorities said Smith and Gomez broke out part of the ceiling and crawled outside the building through a heating vent.
They slid partway down the exterior on bedsheets and jumped the rest of the way. A passer-by saw one of the men and alerted authorities.
GRAND JUNCTION
Rescue mission gets
$60,000 donation
The Grand Junction Rescue Mission has received an anonymous gift of $60,000, said Keith Bradley, a pastor who operates the mission.
The donation, received last week, allowed Bradley to pay off mission debt. He said it was the mission’s largest single donation.
“Now we’re debt free,” he said. “Everything is paid for.”
Bradley said he started the mission after stopping in Grand Junction 23 years ago for repairs on his van after a collision with a deer. He noticed a lot of homeless men in town and, after making inquiries, decided to stay and found a shelter.
FORT MORGAN
Asbestos-removal
supervisor sentenced
A federal judge ordered six months of in-home detention for a man who pleaded guilty to inadequately supervising asbestos removal at Fort Morgan High School.
Joseph John Cannella of Arvada was also fined $40,000 and ordered to serve three years of probation. The home detention will be part of his probation.
Cannella was sentenced in federal court in Denver last week. He was in charge of an asbestos-removal team at the school.
Two other men were sentenced to prison in the case. Another died before a plea bargain was finalized.
The state shut down the school in February 2000 because of asbestos levels from a remodeling project. The cleanup and renovation cost $8 million, including $2 million from the state.
