A trip to Disneyland was cut short tragically Monday on Vail Pass when the family minivan that Lance Melting was driving crashed into a tractor-trailer that had jackknifed across Interstate 70.
Melting, 39, was killed and 22 people were injured in a pileup that involved as many as 75 vehicles. I-70 was closed for nearly eight hours.
Melting, a father of four, died instantly from head injuries, when his van slid perpendicularly under the semi-trailer, which was sliding broadside down the highway,according to the Colorado State Patrol.
His wife, Jamie Lathrop, was listed in serious condition at St. Anthony Central Hospital in Denver. One of their four children is believed to injured but not seriously. The other three are with their grandparents, according to Melting’s co-workers.
The family had left Longmont a few hours earlier to drive to California during spring break.
Melting was a special education teacher at Heritage Middle School in Longmont.
“He was such a wonderful man,” said Shawlene Spear, who works at the school and knew Melting for two years. “He was quiet, soft-spoken, a really caring teacher who found his niche with kids who have harder needs than normal.
“He loved music. He played classic rock in his classrooms, stuff from the late ’60s and early ’70s. He will be greatly missed.”
The State Patrol said it will release a report on the accident today. Stacey Stegman, spokeswoman for the Colorado Department of Transportation, said chain laws were in effect on the highway when the accident occurred about 1:20 p.m. Heavy, wet snow was falling in what was described as a near whiteout.
But longtime trucker Jim Findley said he drove over Vail Pass just minutes before the accident.
“The chain law was in effect for the eastbound lanes only,” said Findley, 62, who has been driving over Vail Pass as many as five times a week for more than 30 years. “I’ve never seen the poor quality of snow removal we’ve had as in the last three years on that road.
“It’s a problem area. It’s known as ‘The Narrows’ because the whole area narrows down. It’s notoriously bad, and we back out of it (slow down) to make sure we can stop. On Monday, I saw just one plow on the road, and it was in the eastbound lane.”
