A father from Wichita and two of his children died early Saturday after a van he was driving slammed into the back of a pickup truck being towed by another pickup, then was struck by a tractor-trailer.
The man’s wife and the couple’s twin daughters survived the collision on Interstate 70 and were flown to Denver-area hospitals.
Killed were Alan “Ken” Schoenwald, 46, a structural engineer; the couple’s son, Jace, 13; and their daughter, Jennalea, 18.
Injured were Schoenwald’s wife, Janelle Schoenwald, 46, a registered nurse who was thrown from the van; and their twin daughters, Alyssa and Avery, 15.
The close-knit family was traveling to Colorado for a weekend ski trip, something they had done several times before, a family member said.
“It was a spur-of-the-moment thing, but they were like that,” Andrew Pierce, 46, of Overland Park, Kan., said of his brother-in-law.
Pierce’s wife, Luanne, and Janelle Schoenwald are sisters.
“They’ve skied all over Colorado and New Mexico. They go hiking and camping there a lot,” Pierce said of the family.
Van crossed median
After hitting the pickup, the Schoenwalds’ westbound van veered across the median and into the eastbound lanes, where it was struck by a tractor-trailer driven by David Schindler, 47, of Eldon, Mo.
Schindler suffered minor injuries and the driver of the pickup towing the other vehicle, Marsden Thomas, 73, of Pittsburg, Kan., was uninjured, police said.
The accident happened about 6 a.m. just east of Deer Trail. Eastbound lanes of I-70 and one westbound lane were closed for much of the morning.
Avery was flown to Medical Center of Aurora South, and Alyssa and their mother were airlifted to Swedish Medical Center. Hospital officials said both girls were in critical condition, and their mother was in fair condition.
“We’ll take that over critical condition any day,” Pierce said.
Several Kansas relatives were en route to the hospitals, he said.
None of the six family members in the van was wearing a seat belt, Colorado State Patrol troopers said.
The children attended Berean Academy, a Christian school in Elbing, northeast of Wichita. The family lived near Andover, a southeast Wichita suburb.
Alan Schoenwald, called “Shonie” by his family, was a devout Christian and the family often did missionary work together, Pierce said.
“How do you describe and tell about this wonderful family?” Pierce said. “They really lived their faith. It wasn’t lip service; it was real.”
Jace was a sports fan, trumpet player and word puzzle fanatic who was “very smart and very easygoing,” Pierce said. “He’d run a Sweet 16 basketball pool and usually win.”
Jennalea was a gymnast in her senior year at Berean and holds the school pole vaulting record. An accomplished artist, she had applied to several colleges to study art education, but relatives hoped she would attend John Brown University, a private Christian school in Arkansas, where many of them had graduated.
“It was there Janelle and Shonie met each other,” Pierce said. “They were college sweethearts.”
Worked with churches
As a professional, Alan Schoenwald was highly regarded for his work, much of it focused on church designs.
“He had an excellent reputation,” said David Crockett, an attorney who often worked with Schoenwald. “He’s done a lot of church work, though he did many other buildings too. He was very thorough.”
Schoenwald was a deacon at First Bible Baptist Church in Wichita and the couple was active in the children’s ministry, singing and acting in skits.
The cause of the crash is under investigation. Alan Schoenwald may have fallen asleep or been distracted, the State Patrol said.
Annette Espinoza: 303-954-1655 or aespinoza@denverpost.com
