BRIGHTON, Colo.—The teen driver in a crash that killed one state trooper and injured another was sentenced Thursday to two years of probation and ordered to serve 300 hours of community service.
Cody Loos, 18, was sentenced shortly after pleading guilty to careless driving resulting in death.
Trooper Zachariah Templeton was killed in the collision Oct. 11 on Interstate 76 near Brighton, just northeast of Denver.
Investigators say Loos, then 17, was at the wheel when he looked down for some sunflower seeds. When he looked up again, traffic was backed up because another driver had lost a 2,500-gallon plastic water tank he was towing on a trailer.
Templeton and fellow Trooper Scott Hinshaw had stopped to help that driver.
Loos swerved so to avoid the traffic in front of him but struck the trailer and the troopers. Hinshaw suffered broken bones in his legs. Templeton died the next day.
In court Thursday, Loos apologized to the troopers’ families.
Hinshaw also spoke, telling Loos the accident should inspire him to be a better person whose life would honor Templeton.
“Although you did this and it should not have happened, I … do not want you to let this run your life. Do not let it define who you are. You made a mistake,” Hinshaw said.
He also challenged Loos to work with him on the Alive at 25 program for young drivers.
Hinshaw and Templeton’s family said they had forgiven Loos, although Templeton’s family questioned why careless driving resulting in death is a misdemeanor and not a felony, which would carry a harsher penalty.
