Ben Campbell was the youngest of six children, but his personality was larger than most. The 17-year-old senior at Elizabeth High School was killed Tuesday afternoon after a Jeep crashed into a sedan that he and two other students were riding in on Elbert County Road 154, off Colorado 86.
“Ben was a very bright, beautiful boy with a wonderful sense of humor. He could make you smile; he could make you laugh,” Lisa Shipman Campbell, Ben’s mother, said Wednesday. “We loved him dearly.”
Ben’s girlfriend, 16-year-old junior Amber Wilburn of Elizabeth, and Izzy Veed, 18, a senior from Kiowa who was behind the wheel, were airlifted to hospitals in critical condition.
The sedan, a 1996 Buick Century, was hit by the Jeep when the sedan pulled out onto County Road 154 about 2 p.m. The driver of the Jeep, a 19-year-old Elizabeth woman whose name has not been released, had minor injuries. Charges have not been filed against either driver, and the investigation could take weeks to complete, the Colorado State Patrol said.
A memorial for Ben will be 10 a.m. Saturday at Kiowa Creek Community Church. The family asks that donations be made to the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation. Jordan Steffen, The Denver Post
