The 33-year-old driver in a fatal Jefferson County crash on U.S. 285 last month drove for more than three miles in the wrong direction on the highway before crashing into and killing a Colorado couple, according to court documents.
Michael Colson was arrested Monday on suspicion of vehicular homicide, reckless driving, reckless endangerment, driving under the influence and driving the wrong way on a divided highway, according to Jefferson County .
The crash killed two people and injured two others, including Colson, State Patrol officials said in a news release.
Colson was driving an Acura RL southbound on northbound U.S. 285 at about 5:20 a.m. on July 21 when he collided with a Cadillac CTS carrying a 59-year-old male driver and a 64-year-old female passenger, agency officials said.
The Cadillac spun out of control and crashed into a third vehicle: a Colorado Chevrolet driven by a 51-year-old man.
The three-car crash happened near mile marker 249 on U.S. 285, about one mile south of C-470, state officials said.
All four people were taken to the hospital. The two in the Cadillac — identified by investigators as Michael and Debra Carman — later died from their injuries, according to Colson’s arrest affidavit.
Colson told investigators that he was headed from his Wheat Ridge home to visit his uncle in Arizona.
He said that “God told him his uncle needed to be saved,” investigators wrote in the arrest affidavit.
The 33-year-old admitted to drinking alcohol earlier in the day and smoking marijuana shortly before the crash. He also told state patrol troopers he was “speeding like crazy,” the document states.
Colson drove his car for more than three miles in the wrong direction on U.S. 285, passing multiple vehicles during that time, before the crash happened, investigators said.
He was taken to a hospital with serious injuries and transferred to a different hospital on Aug. 1, more than a week after the crash, for mental health care, according to court documents.
Colson is scheduled to appear in court Monday for a hearing on charges, according to court records.
He is currently being held in the Jefferson County Jail on a $100,000 bond, court records show.
