Adelaide Rowell was killed while volunteering at a Young Life camp in the summer of 2024, where she primarily worked at a tower of the ropes course, according to the lawsuit filed in Oregon earlier this month.

, an international Christian youth organization based in Colorado Springs, hosts . The fatal crash happened at the , a 64,280-acre compound in northern Oregon and one of Young Life’s largest camps.

Part of Rowell’s role at the camp was transporting campers, supplies and volunteers to the ropes course, accessible only by steep, switchback roads made of rock and dirt, according to the lawsuit. Rowell and other volunteers drove up and down those roads five to 10 times a day, the lawsuit stated.

On Aug. 6, 2024, Rowell was a passenger in a Kawasaki Mule utility task vehicle delivering water to a zip line tower when the driver lost control and drove off the road, according to the lawsuit. Rowell was thrown from the UTV and crushed beneath it, according to a report from the .

“Young Life made the choice that they were going to let it go that these folks weren’t properly trained or properly wearing the equipment,” said , an attorney with D’Amore Law Group who is representing the family. “It wasn’t a one-time lapse.”

Neither volunteer was wearing a seatbelt or a helmet when the UTV crashed, both of which are required by the vehicle’s safety manual, according to the lawsuit.

“Not wearing a seat belt, or wearing one improperly, can result in serious injury or death in the event of an accident,” the lawsuit stated, citing the manual. “Make certain the operator and all passengers always wear their seat belts. 
 The door and hand grips are not a substitute for seat belts.”

But volunteers didn’t have access to that manual, and they were never instructed to use that safety equipment in their training, the lawsuit alleges. Helmets were provided to campers in the vehicles, but not to volunteers or paid staff, according to the lawsuit.

“The supervisory staff themselves didn’t wear seatbelts when they drove these vehicles,” D’Amore said. “The organization was aware of it for years, and neither the organization nor the employees did anything to change the practice.”

“The volunteer driving the UTV that day hadn’t even finished Young Life’s completely inadequate training herself,” he continued.

The training provided by Young Life at that time included modules covering the safe operation of motor vehicles on public roads, day-of training at the Ranch and a motorized car training that covered the wrong vehicle, according to the lawsuit. That training works for golf carts, but doesn’t apply to all-terrain vehicles, D’Amore said.

The two volunteers had operated the UTV “countless times” without wearing helmets or seat belts, which camp officials were aware of, the lawsuit alleges.

“This safety gap (Young Life) had, this choice that they made on a critical safety feature — it’s not an accident. It was a choice they made,” D’Amore said.

In a statement provided to The Denver Post, Rowell’s family described her as “an extraordinary young woman who excelled quietly in all she did, devoted to serving others, listening deeply, and making people feel seen and valued.” The 19-year-old was and on track to graduate in 2027.

The family participated and volunteered with Young Life’s programs for decades, according to the statement. They’re disappointed that the organization refuses to acknowledge the “safety failures, inadequate policies, and insufficient training” that they believe contributed to her death.

“Her death was both predictable and preventable, and our family lives each day with the devastating reality that she will never come home,” the statement read.

Teenage campers were the first to respond to the fatal crash — lifting the UTV off Rowell after the crash and starting CPR, according to the lawsuit. After 10 minutes, paramedics and medical doctors arrived at the scene. They tried for another 30 minutes but were unable to revive Rowell, the lawsuit stated.

OSHA fined the camp more than $57,000 for after the incident, according to the agency’s inspection report.

“At every Young Life camp, our chief priority is the safety of our campers, staff, and volunteers,” Young Life spokesperson Lauren Bocci said in an email to The Denver Post. “We had extensive safety policies and training in place at the time of the accident. As is our standard practice, we also updated those policies and trainings following an extensive review of the accident.”

The statement did not specify which policies and trainings were updated or how those changes were enforced, and Bocci did not respond to follow-up questions.

“Adelaide Rowell was an extraordinary young woman who brought joy to so many, and the Young Life community continues to be devastated by this tragedy,” Bocci stated. “We remain committed to supporting the Rowell family and all who knew and loved Adelaide as they grieve this terrible loss.”

Rowell’s family is asking for up to $20 million in economic damages and $40 million in noneconomic damages, according to the lawsuit.

Economic damages include wages Rowell could have earned if she had “lived a normal life and made a normal earning,” D’Amore said. Noneconomic damages include compensation for the pain and suffering Rowell went through before her death and the loss of society and companionship that her family suffered, he said.

D’Amore said punitive damages may be added to the case, which are awarded to punish intentional or reckless behavior. It sends a message, he said.

Young Life “showed a reckless and outrageous indifference to a highly unreasonable risk of harm and acted with a conscious indifference to the health, safety, and welfare of others,” the lawsuit stated.

Rowell’s death is not the first time Young Life has faced allegations of putting volunteers and campers at risk. In 2016, after she fell from a swing at a high ropes course in South Carolina.

Grimes was supposed to be attached to a large pendulum swing along with two other people, but she became unhooked and fell more than 100 feet to the ground, authorities said.

That lawsuit was settled outside of court in 2017, according to South Carolina court records.

The organization has also been accused by former members of discriminating against the LGBTQ+ community, with hundreds taking to social media to share their stories in 2020, and of when several volunteers came forward in 2021.

“These incidents point to a recurring theme of an organization that operates at a massive scale but has repeatedly failed to train, supervise and protect people,” D’Amore said. “The family is seeking justice on behalf of Adelaide and wants to ensure that this never happens again.”

This is a developing story and may be updated.

The Broncos’ new $175 million practice facility is here, less than three years after news of the vision leaked to the public. At first glance, the lobby matches the price tag. Lombardi Trophies glint from berths behind glass paneling, and thick beams of mass timber crisscross perpendicular across fluorescent Broncos logos. The club’s on-duty security officer now sits behind a brand-new desk carved from sandstone.

All of it, of course, pales in comparison to the benefits enjoyed by the club’s most important employees. No more short walk across parking-lot concrete — sounds spoiled, Meinerz acknowledged — for players to get to the weight room. No more above-ground parking in the hot sun. No more treks across snow to the indoor practice facility. All of it is centralized. Enough to make The Belly smile wide, and enough to make teammates’ jaws drop.

“It’s been a long time coming,” All-Pro cornerback Pat Surtain II grinned Tuesday. “The locker room is crazy. It¶¶Òőap quite unique as well, too. And it just gives a different feel, different vibe. Leaving that in the past, and we’re entering a new state, new years.”

Years of plainly visible metaphor in the Sean Payton Era — players training with the shadow of a massive facility growing behind them — have converged this week, as Bronco veterans officially arrived for the start of 2026 training camp Tuesday at their newly finalized headquarters. It is a flag planted by the Walton-Penner ownership group in Denver, and a flag planted in the wider NFL landscape.

If there’s any doubt about the Broncos’ goals of climbing to the top of the league, of spending to get there, of maximizing their Super Bowl window: just look up at the glass-paneled building down in Dove Valley.

“My expectations was high, and it definitely exceeded my expectations,” Surtain said, speaking further on the facility. “I don’t think there’s nothing like this in the league. I mean, it¶¶Òőap state-of-the-art. Very nice facilities, everything. And it seems like, when you look at it, obviously you look at the locker rooms, the facilities — it just seemed like it was meant to be.”

In June, final construction on the facility was briefly halted after the death of 31-year-old construction worker Sven Eryk Johnson. An Occupational Safety and Health Administration investigation into Eryk Johnson’s death is still ongoing.

For years, despite generally solid marks across every other aspect of the organization, the Broncos’ NFL Players’ Association report cards have lagged behind in one area: the locker room. That . That old locker room had seen three Super Bowl championships and several Hall of Famers; it also got rather cramped over the years, as NFL rosters have expanded.

The new locker room, head coach Sean Payton said in 2025, is “three to four times” larger, a clear priority for owners Greg and Carrie Walton Penner in planning for the new facility. Another priority, too, has been players’ ease of travel, which president Damani Leech made particular note of in a 2025 conversation with The Post. Architect HOK, Leech said, had created charts that measured several NFL facilities’ distance from the locker room to other building amenities by player steps.

“You saw, ours was just, these big, massive spikes,” Leech told The Post, then, in 2025. “Whereas, these other facilities were tighter. And so, our question was like, ‘How can we make ours the tightest as possible, for our players?’”

Those benefits, as Meinerz and Surtain described Tuesday, are immediately apparent to players. Everything is connected now, in Dove Valley. That’s not a groundbreaking difference, perhaps; but minutes add up throughout the day, Meinerz said.

“I mean, you come here and you see the first-class everywhere,” Meinerz marveled. “I went to the cafeteria. That¶¶Òőap wild. Like, the new nutritionist area is incredible. The training room, the amount of tables that are in there, the pools, the tubs, the amenities.”

The franchise officially has a team facility worthy of the richest ownership group in the NFL, and of a roster carrying Super Bowl expectations. Payton made waves in 2025’s training camp by proclaiming last year’s Broncos had the pieces to win a championship; adding star receiver Jaylen Waddle and returning most of the key faces from an AFC title-game berth has shifted expectation from internal to external.

Adding another Lombardi Trophy to that new lobby, as Surtain said Tuesday, is “obviously” the main goal for 2026. And ownership, head coach Payton and general manager George Paton now have an infrastructure to market the franchise for years to come.

“I would assume whenever people come here and they take a tour, their mind’s going to be blown,” Meinerz said Tuesday. “Because we already had a really good setup. But this just blows it out of the water.”

Sven Eryk Johnson, 31, was found unresponsive at the site of the Denver Broncos’ new training facility on June 15, . As of Friday, when the coroner publicly identified the man, his cause and manner of death remained under investigation.

A coworker found Johnson “in a confined ceiling area” at the construction site, 13409 E. Broncos Parkway, at about 8:20 p.m. on June 15. The man was declared dead at the scene.

Johnson was described in his as “an incredible light” and “a genuine down-to-earth soul with the kind of presence that drew people in and made them feel seen, valued, and deeply loved.”

“He had a contagious smile, laugh, and eyes that lit up for the things and people he cherished, especially his niece and nephew,” his obituary read. “Creative, artistic, and deeply passionate, Sven was an old soul and a deep thinker who loved fiercely and lived fully. To know him was to love him.”

The 31-year-old was born and raised in Michigan before becoming an electrician. He was an avid hockey player, loved the outdoors and could often be found hiking, camping, biking or “simply embracing whatever adventure life had to offer.”

Johnson is survived by his fiancée, his siblings, his niece and nephew and his parents, according to the obituary.

officials confirmed last week that an investigation had been opened into Johnson’s death. OSHA has 6 months to complete the investigation, spokesperson Tiffany Koebel said.

The Broncos planned to start relocating their offices and operations to the new facility this month, with the move-in process scheduled to be completed before the start of the team’s training camp in late July.

As of last week, construction at the site had been suspended amid the ongoing investigation. Turner Construction Company, the firm leading construction at the site, did not immediately respond to questions about whether work had resumed on Monday.

This is a developing story and may be updated.

Summer arrived a day early for the Broncos.

The veteran head coach for the first time since arriving in Denver in 2023 called off the last of Denver’s slated three-day mandatory minicamp and instead excused his team for the summer after a slate of Wednesday afternoon meetings.

Payton cited multiple factors in wrapping up the minicamp after two days rather than three, including the Broncos’ deep playoff run last season and also the fact that this week is the final in the club’s current locker room and facility.

“It¶¶Òőap unusual because there’s a lot of packing, a little bit more than normal when you’re moving into a new facility,” Payton said.

Indeed, when the Broncos return from summer break and report for training camp late next month, they will do so to the gleaming new headquarters across the field from the building they’ve been in since 1990. The initial move-in may not happen exactly on the initial schedule of this weekend after a subcontractor died at the construction site Monday night. Work was still paused while Denver practiced Wednesday, which is nearly done and with training camp more than five weeks away.

Payton said even in a normal year, he likes to have something fresh ready when players return for training camp.

“I like the idea of always coming back to something new,” he said. “Pretend it wasn’t that new facility — we’d have new signage or try to create (something new).

“Here, we’ve been slow to even talk about putting things up in the hallways because you don’t know which ones are getting the traffic. For all of us, I’m sure there will be some quirks.”

Payton also cited the Broncos’ deep playoff run during the 2025 season as the reason for finishing a day early. That¶¶Òőap been a consistent factor in how the coach and his staff have conducted this offseason.

They reported for Phase 1 — Payton’s always consists of six weeks of just running and lifting — two weeks later than any other team in the NFL. They held two weeks of OTAs rather than the maximum three. Then two days of minicamp instead of three.

In total, Denver was on the field for eight days this offseason between OTAs and minicamp. That¶¶Òőap about as few as possible for an NFL team these days.

“It was the most amount of days we’ve been in the building for the regular season, so there’s a balance there,” Payton said. “I think it¶¶Òőap just about trying to read the team. We have a lot of things that we have to get to and a lot of work to do.

“Fortunately, I think we’ll be coming into training camp pretty healthy. There will be some guys that are here (this summer) training and working on rehab.”

Before OTAs even started, inside linebacker Alex Singleton said he felt like the defense was weeks, months or years ahead of other teams because of the extensive continuity among the group.

Quarterback Bo Nix on Tuesday said he felt like his offense was further along than it had been this time of year in either of his first two seasons despite the fact he’s missed most of the offseason program while rehabbing from a pair of ankle operations.

“I thought it was a great couple of weeks of work,” right tackle Mike McGlinchey said Wednesday. “It¶¶Òőap always hard to tell, especially from an O-line and D-line perspective when you’re just hanging out in t-shirts and stuff. I think we all have a really good understanding of what we do. Obviously there wasn’t a lot of roster turnover this year moving forward. Having the experience that we have in the building and playing together for as long as we all have is a good thing to keep building on and starting on a higher point than each year before.

“If you’re not improving, you are getting worse in this league and I think we took steps to improve from OTAs last year to training camp to the whole season. Then we played last season, the (17th) game was better than the first game and that¶¶Òőap the goal this year as well. We have to be better in training camp than we were in OTAs and so on and so forth.”

The next step can wait for a few weeks. The Broncos will decamp for a few weeks of mostly rest and relaxation, then reconvene in the final week of July to start the long march toward what they hope is once again championship contention.

“I like where we’re at,” Payton said.

The has opened an investigation into the construction worker’s death, said Chauntra Rideaux, regional director of the U.S. Department of Labor’s Office of Public Affairs for Denver and Dallas, on Wednesday.

“More details will be available after the investigation is complete,” Rideaux said.

It’s unknown how long the investigation will take.

Workers found the man, who has not been publicly identified, “in a confined ceiling area” at the construction site at 13409 E. Broncos Parkway at about 8:20 p.m. Monday, . The man was declared dead at the scene.

A spokesperson for Turner Construction Company, the firm leading construction at the site, confirmed work at the site, which is closed, remained suspended amid the ongoing investigation.

“We continue to support all investigations into the incident, including OSHA’s,” Christopher McFadden, Turner’s senior vice president of global communications, wrote in a statement.

The Arapahoe County Coroner’s Office will identify the man after his next of kin have been notified, spokesperson Jessica Ward-Gifford said in an email to The Denver Post. As of Tuesday, his cause and manner of death had not been determined.

The Denver Broncos were expected to relocate their offices and operations to the new facility in the coming days. The move-in process was scheduled to be completed before the start of the team’s training camp in late July.

How Broncos are bringing $175 million headquarters to life

Instead, there was cake.Ìę

Lawmakers in the House and Senate plugged away with some final formal votes, in between lengthy and teary tributes to the members who are term-limited or otherwise not returning to the Capitol. Its halls, which in years past have taken on a party-like atmosphere as lawmakers and lobbyists celebrate the end of the session, were quiet and nearly empty by midday. Both chambers adjourned shortly after 7:15 p.m.

But that quiet final day betrayed the tough decisions — particularly around the budget — and fights that had roiled the state Capitol over the past four months.

“When you look at the challenges we had, with the budget and other things, I’m really just proud of the work we were able to do to be able to hold the line on K-12 funding,” said Rep. Andy Boesenecker, a Fort Collins Democrat and the House’s speaker pro tem. He was standing on the House balcony with other lawmakers, one of whom was playing the guitar.Ìę

The end of the 120-day session of the 75th General Assembly still featured final votes on key legislation. Lawmakers finalized a bill that would shift transportation funding in a bid to neuter a coming ballot measure. They passed legislation reforming some parts of the arbitration process, killed bills related to gun barrel sales and workplace safety, and gave final approval to a ride-hailing app safety bill and another measure that would require college health centers to provideÌęabortion medication.Ìę

A commission to study the state’s troubled Medicaid program cleared the Capitol on the final day, as did a bill that would provide tax incentives to support affordable housing and transportation improvements.

In some of its final votes of the year, the House created a new wild horse license plate and gave the go-ahead for people to sell a wider variety of homemade foods.

Transportation funding battle

On its final day, the Senate passed the bill that would undercut a proposed constitutional amendment concerning road funding. But first, the bill sponsors amended the measure in what one called a show of “good faith” to backers of the amendment.

Initiative 175, which is out for signature-gathering to qualify for the November ballot, would amend the state constitution to require the state to spend hundreds of millions of dollars more on road funding. Among its backers is the Colorado Construction Industry Coalition.

Democrats in control of the legislature warn that it would hamstring other state priorities, like education and healthcare, by sapping money from the general fund.

would rework some state funding and cut the gasoline tax to neutralize Initiative 175’s effect on the state budget, supporters of the bill said.

Sen. William Lindstedt, a Broomfield Democrat, introduced an amendment creating a new bucket of money in the state, specifically to go toward road maintenance, by sequestering some permit fees for oversized vehicles. He called it a show of “good faith” to supporters of the amendment that the legislature wants to prioritize road funding — and, Lindstedt and other Democrats hope, it might spur backers of the amendment to drop their push.

Republicans, however, continued their opposition to the measure.

Sen. Barbara Kirkmeyer, a Brighton Republican, said she saw the bill as the legislature trying to impede people’s ability to petition their government. Sen. Byron Pelton, a Sterling Republican, urged supporters of the initiative to keep pushing the measure.

“The people of Colorado need to make a statement to make roads a priority,” Pelton said, comparing it to a constitutional amendment requiring a baseline of education funding that voters passed in 2000.

Notable bills die on last day

The Senate killed a bill that would mimic federal workplace protections at the state level when six Democrats joined Republicans in opposition.

would have enshrined federal standards from the Occupational Safety and Health Administration in state law. Worker safety advocates said it was necessary in the face of likely rollbacks of worker protections under the Trump administration.

The bill died a rare death on the formal third-reading vote. None of the Democrats who voted against the bill — Sens. Judy Amabile, Matt Ball, Jeff Bridges, Lindsey Daugherty, Kyle Mullica and Marc Snyder — spoke from the floor about their opposition before the formal vote or during debate last week.

Earlier in the day, the House also killed a bill that would regulate the sale of gun barrels.

House Majority Leader Monica Duran on Wednesday moved to delay a final vote on until Thursday — effectively a death sentence, given that the legislature will not be in session then. The bill had languished on the calendar for weeks with no action.

The bill’s sponsor, Rep. Meg Froelich, had said she hoped for a final vote on the measure before adjournment. When Duran announced SB-43’s death, Froelich sat back in her chair in disappointment.

Had it passed, the bill would’ve required people who buy or sell detachable gun barrels to do so in person, and sales could generally only be conducted by a licensed firearms dealer.

The Senate passed the measure in early March and it cleared initial votes in the House shortly after. But it rolled along on the House calendar for weeks.

Its initial vote was delayed because key supporters were absent, Froelich said. The vote was then further delayed, in part, because Republican opposition meant it would take hours to debate — and in part because Polis intended to veto the measure, Froelich said.

And worker safety advocates have winced at attempts federal safety regulations that they say will leave workers facing unnecessarily dangerous conditions.

All are examples of the new uncertainty surrounding federal policy since President Donald Trump returned to office last year. Colorado’s Democratic legislative majority already had sought to insulate the state from Republican priorities that are at odds with their own — resulting in laws that have enshrined protections for immigrants, abortion, voting and more in state law.

And now lawmakers are turning to areas where the federal government has pulled back under Trump. This year, Democrats have already unveiled a suite of bills that would give the state more say in authorizing vaccines, would grant it more authority to enforce workplace safety and would aim to better protect students with disabilities, among other legislation.

In all cases, the backers have cast the efforts as the state stepping in where an unreliable federal partner has stepped back.

“We have never had to question whether or not the federal government is a reliable partner, and now we do need to,” said Heather Tritten, the CEO of the Colorado Children’s Campaign and a backer of the disability rights bill. “When we think about the programs like civil rights in education, or even in Medicaid or TANF (the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families program) or education, we’re seeing that the money and partnership we could always rely on just isn’t there. And that means we need something here that can take up that space.”

House Speaker Julie McCluskie, a Dillon Democrat, says it’s not a posture unique to Colorado.

She recalled that during a meeting with legislative leaders from other states last year, there was “a desire to really assert state authority in this moment.”

“So many of the issues that I think we’ve looked to the federal government to resolve are now falling to the states to grapple with,” McCluskie said.

It remains unclear how assertive Gov. Jared Polis, also a Democrat, is willing to be when it comes to passing such laws, which have drawn opposition from Republicans and, in some cases, business groups. Eric Maruyama, a spokesperson for Polis, said the governor will review every bill that reaches his desk individually.

But he also understands the legislative priority.

“It is not surprising that the legislature is trying to fill gaps being created by the federal government and congressional inaction on some of the hardest problems facing the country,” Maruyama said in a statement. “Regardless of federal chaos, the governor is focused on delivering on better education, more housing options Coloradans can afford, less expensive healthcare, and protecting our Colorado for all.”

Months of silence from federal office

One new piece of legislation is aimed at helping families like Sutton’s.

Her high school-aged daughter lives with serious medical conditions — the type of things where, without specific care, she could lose the ability to walk or risk organ shutdown, Sutton said. At the beginning of the school year, the family sought and received a 504 plan, a federal designation meant to guarantee that people with physical disabilities have the same access to education as their peers.

It didn’t take long for Sutton to suspect that the accommodations required by the 504 plan were not being met. She said she raised her concerns to Palmer Ridge High School officials in October, then to the school district before she escalated it to in December.

Three months later, Sutton said she’s heard nothing beyond an acknowledgement her complaint has been received.

Her daughter, meanwhile, has faced new diagnoses and has spent more time in the hospital. All the while, school work has piled up as her accommodations aren’t met, Sutton said. Sutton declined to discuss some aspects of her daughter’s situation, as well as some details of her medical conditions, with The Denver Post because of a pending legal complaint and to protect her daughter’s privacy.

“We’re in the thick of it right now,” Sutton said. “Beyond the emotional effect it’s had on my child, it’s had real academic harm for her. The implications are very real. For our students, depending on what their post-high school goals are, are we setting them up for success — especially when they already have to do so much to overcome their existing disabilities? I don’t think so.”

In a statement Friday, Rick Frampton, executive director of student services for Lewis-Palmer School District 38, didn’t address Sutton’s situation but said the district “believes in implementing all 504 plans with integrity and a commitment to ensuring that students with disabilities receive equal access to education.”

“We follow a structured process and work closely with families to implement and develop those plans,” Frampton said.

Stories like Sutton’s spurred Sen. Chris Kolker, a Centennial Democrat, to introduce . Last March, the federal Office of Civil Rights laid off more than half of its staff and closed more than half of its regional offices, .

The office also “deprioritized” its usual work of investigating civil rights complaints, such as those filed by students with disabilities, according to the think tank.

SB-125 would give the state similar power and authority that was previously left in the hands of the federal office. Kolker says the goal is to recreate what had previously been accepted practice at the state level.

As it stands now, 504 plans are solely the purview of federal enforcement and outside the scope of state offices.

“The cases (the federal office) investigates are very important for these families to have someone look into what is happening,” Kolker said. “This is just a fundamental right for our disabled community.”

Madi Ashour, a policy advisor with the Colorado Children’s Campaign, said the goal is to make it so there’s “no wrong door” for families looking for recourse when their children’s needs aren’t being met.

Advocates also hope the bill, if it becomes law, would give families needed support even if the Trump administration, or the next president, reverses course. Ashour estimates the bill would require the addition of three attorneys at the Colorado Department of Education to help families navigate and seek support for their 504 plans or other accommodations. Legislative analysts haven’t yet released a fiscal note.

Paying for the billÌęis one of its bigger hurdles, Kolker said. Advocates estimate it may cost about $500,000, though nonpartisan fiscal analysts have not yet released their analysis. Kolker has introduced other bills that may produce budget savings that he hopes to leverage to pay for SB-125, but nothing is set in stone.

For Sutton, she sees the bill as vital to making sure families can get the support they need and avert the stress her family has experienced. Delays of even a few months represent time no one can get back — and for children, it¶¶Òőap especially formative time that could be key to their education.

“Parents shouldn’t have to become experts in civil rights law just so their child can receive the accommodations their school has already approved,” Sutton said.

Money worries loom over ambitions

Other proposals this year are intended to give the state some enforcement power in places typically covered by the federal government. But how to pay for the enforcement remains a hurdle in a particularly cash-strapped year.

The sponsors of seek to enshrine federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration standards — those intended to keep workers safe — in state law. But because the state doesn’t have money for new programs, it would rely on labor unions, individuals and state agents by giving them the ability to sue over violations.

The bill has drawn staunch opposition from business groups.

Sponsoring Reps. Manny Rutinel and Elizabeth Velasco, both Democrats, said they hoped to expand the proposal in future years to include direct state enforcement. But with the Trump administration threatening to rescind OSHA’s — an umbrella regulation that requires generally safe workplaces — for “inherently risky professional activities,” they felt urgency to act now.

“If I had the magic wand, of course, I would want to have a state OSHA, a state entity or department that could be protecting workers and doing this rulemaking and looking at all the things that need to be done to hold bad actors accountable,” Velasco said. “But with our budgetary environment — with the barriers we are seeing — we believe that this is one good avenue to start with this issue.”

The Colorado Chamber of Commerce contends that the bill would create duplicative enforcement and regulatory systems. Meghan Dollar, the chamber’s senior vice president of government affairs, also expressed concern about it expanding civil liability for employers.

“It could lead to conflicting legal standards with multiple levels of overly complicated rules, creating confusion over how state and federal enforcement interact,” Dollar said in a statement. “Regarding filling hypothetical gaps in OSHA enforcement, there are more effective ways to address issues that arise with changes to federal rules — layering separate state standards and creating new litigation risks will only increase costs, uncertainty and regulatory complexity for business.”

HB-1054 cleared its first hurdle at the end of February, passing a narrow 7-6 vote in the House Business Affairs and Labor Committee. It now heads to the Appropriations Committee, where voting members will determine if the state has money to push the matter.

That question may not be resolved for a month or longer, as state budget writers look at how to shave nearly $800 million in planned spending for the upcoming year to close the state’s gap.

“When the Trump administration decided to gut our health care, Medicaid — to the tune of almost $1 trillion — it gutted OSHA in the process,” said Rutinel, a Commerce City Democrat who’s running for Congress. He was referring to the omnibus spending package that Trump signed into law last summer. “(The administration) did it all to give tax breaks to his corporate donors and to pump billions of dollars into immigration enforcement.

“Colorado is having to step in and find ways so that, despite our budget concerns, we can still find ways to protect our most vulnerable workers”

‘Trying to insulate Colorado’ on vaccines

A similar motivation is behind recent vaccine legislation at the Capitol.

Asturias, the Children’s Hospital Colorado doctor, said that over the past year, he’s seen a huge amount of anxiety among families that are trying to navigate changing federal guidelines and do what¶¶Òőap best for their children.

Since Trump appointed Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who has long trafficked in about vaccine safety, to head the federal health agency, Kennedy has moved to change the recommended vaccine schedule.

“We have seen a huge amount of patients and families and parents being confused now,” Asturias said. “Even parents who are health care providers are now reaching out and saying, ‘Can you give me a good explanation of what’s changing?’ ”

To calm those concerns, Asturias is supporting . If it becomes law, the measure will give state health officials the authority to use immunization guidance from medical professional organizations, and outside of the federal advisory committee steered by Kennedy, when approving vaccine schedules. It would build off prior efforts by the legislature and the Colorado Department of Public Health and the Environment to maintain vaccine access in Colorado.Ìę

Sen. Kyle Mullica, a Thornton Democrat and emergency room nurse by trade, doesn’t see vaccines as a partisan issue. But when he brought the bill to the floor for debate in February, he was direct in his diagnosis.

This bill, Mullica said, is about “trying to insulate Colorado from some of the dysfunction that we see coming out of Washington, D.C., and with Secretary Kennedy.”

That wasn’t meant as a partisan jab at a Republican administration, Mullica said, but was him “calling balls and strikes,” just like he would if a Democrat was doing something he disagreed with.

“I think that it’s just the facts,” Mullica said. “They are doing things … that just do not follow the science and do not follow the experts and what we should be doing.”

He said it was time for state policymakers to “step up.”

But the bill nonetheless has caused substantial bristling among Republicans. None voted for the measure when it passed the Senate, with several raising concerns about liability for people harmed by vaccines.

Senate Minority Leader Cleave Simpson, an Alamosa Republican, said the vaccine bill was interesting enough to warrant consideration. But starting the conversation with a posture of opposing the Trump administration “certainly slanted it a little bit.”

“As the minority leader, and a lifelong Republican, these are probably opportunities for some level of thoughtful engagement and conversation,” Simpsons said. “But it starts from that place of the influence national politics might be and are having on the conversations here.”

He said he’s been approached about supporting other measures that he substantively agrees with. But language that’s designed “to put a stick in the eye of the federal government” keeps him from signing on.

“We should, where we can, be thoughtful and avoid those kind of conversations, and just focus on what¶¶Òőap good for Colorado and the reasons why — and not what the current administration makeup looks like,” Simpson said.

Prospect Ranch LLC, which operates Prospect Valley Dairy east of Keenesburg, faces $132,406 in penalties after OSHA cited the company for failure to protect workers from atmospheric hazards, failure to communicate the hazards in writing and failure to train workers on how to detect hazardous gases,

Fiske faces $99,306 in fines and HD Builders faces $14,897 in penalties for failure to protect employees from atmospheric hazards and failure to provide hydrogen sulfide detection training. HD Builders employees were present during the incident, but were not harmed.

Fiske, based in Johnstown, is a construction and consulting company that provides equipment for dairy farms and other industrial services. HD Builders, based in Windsor, is owned by Agrifab Colorado, according to county records, and is a construction company specializing in agricultural equipment and structures.

OSHA’s investigation into the Aug. 20 incident found that a pipe in Prospect Valley Dairy’s manure management system had disconnected and released manure water and hydrogen sulfide gas, according to the news release. Contractors from Fiske, doing business as High Plains Robotics, and HD Builders had been hired to work on the system.

Hydrogen sulfide occurs naturally in crude petroleum and natural gas, but is also produced from decomposing manure, according to OSHA. In low doses, it is mildly irritating to eyes and lungs, but in high doses in a confined area it can quickly become deadly.

A Fiske employee and a Prospect Ranch employee attempted to stop the flow of the gas but died due to the exposure, according to the investigation. Three more Fiske employees and one Prospect Ranch employee entered the pump room where the gas was leaking and also died.

Weld County Chief Deputy Coroner Jolene Weiner confirmed the identities of the six victims as Oscar Espinoza Leos, 17, Carlos Espinoza Prado, 29, Noé Montanez Casanas, 32, Jorge Sanchez Pena, 36, Ricardo Gomez Galvan, 40, and Alejandro Espinoza Cruz, 50.

, including father Espinoza Cruz and his sons Oscar Espinoza Leos and Espinoza Prado. They were related to Sanchez Pena by marriage, who lived in the employer-provided housing. The family worked in machinery repair for multiple dairy farms in the area.

A Fiske spokesperson confirmed that its four employees who died were Sanchez Pena, Espinoza Cruz, Espinoza Prado and Espinoza Leos, according to a High Plains Robotics news release.

The men were a service manager, two service technicians and the youngest, Espinoza Leos, was an intern being trained by the older men.

In a statement Kevin Fiske, owner of Fiske, said that the company has cooperated with the OSHA investigation. Fiske said that the four men who died were not only hard-working and valued employees, but also pillars of their families and communities.

“While we disagree with the findings and are reviewing our options to determine next steps, we are focused on doing what is in our power to ensure that a tragedy like this never happens again,” Fiske said in a statement.

The companies have 15 business days after receiving their citations to comply, request an informal conference with OSHA or contest the findings, officials said.

County records show the dairy farm is owned by Prospect Valley Dairy and Colorado business registrations show a Bakersfield, California, address for the owners of Prospect Ranch.

The man was working for United Airlines and was involved in a vehicle crash that resulted in his death, United spokesman Russell Carlton said. “We are working with the employee’s family and coworkers to provide them support during this time, and we are investigating the circumstances of the accident,” Carlton said.

DIA officials declined to provide information.

A preliminary Denver Police investigation found that two employees were driving separate cherry-picker-type lifts in the 7400 block of Vandriver Street on DIA property, according to Sgt. Jay Casillas. One of the lifts stopped for an unknown reason, and the second crashed into the first, trapping the operator of the first lift. He ultimately was freed and was taken to a hospital, where he was pronounced dead.

Police are still investigating, Casillas said.

U.S. Occupational Health and Safety officials will investigate the fatality, agency spokeswoman Tiffany Koebel said. Company officials “have six months to complete .”

First responders reported the fatalities at the Prospect Valley Dairy outside Keenesburg on Aug. 20 were possibly associated with exposure to high levels of , known as H2S, a colorless, flammable and corrosive gas that smells like rotten eggs.

Hydrogen sulfide naturally occurs in sewers, manure pits, well water, oil and gas wells and volcanoes. It’s also produced in a number of industries, including mining, tanning, oil and gas refining and certain types of agriculture.

Its effects depend on how much of it a person breathes in and for how long.

Low levels of H2S can produce headaches or eye, nose and throat irritation. But higher levels can cause nausea, vomiting, shortness of breath and loss of consciousness. At extreme levels, hydrogen sulfide can kill a person in just a few breaths. There is no known antidote.

“Hydrogen sulfide is definitely (a) killer,” said Dan Neenan, director of the

Weld County authorities have released few details surrounding the deaths of the six workers, which included four family members, one of whom was a local high school student. The coroner’s office said the deaths are being investigated as a possible gas exposure within a confined space. At the scene, first responders noted finding men with possible high levels of hydrogen sulfide, according to archived radio transmissions.

Experts said the fact that the incident occurred in a confined space lends itself to more dangerous conditions. The , which is also investigating the deadly incident, has , but the agriculture industry is exempt from those regulations.

Though H2S initially has a pungent, rotten-egg odor, prolonged exposure knocks out your sense of smell, leading to a false sense of security, experts said.

Neenan said dairy workers and other people working with hydrogen sulfide should wear monitors that can detect the toxic gas and alert them when the fumes reach certain levels. It’s not clear whether the Prospect Valley Dairy laborers had these monitors.

His organization runs training sessions and classes around the country for both agricultural workers and first responders. They do an hour of classwork, followed by rescue simulations that mimic the conditions of a manure pit.

One of the most important rules when dealing with H2S, Neenan said: Don’t try to rescue people yourself.

What often happens is that one worker falls unconscious from the fumes and their coworkers or family members rush in to try and help them. But a person cannot hold their breath long enough to extract people from a manure pit, Neenan warned.

“I know it’s counterintuitive,” he said. “If it’s a family member, I want to help. But if I go in and pass out, the fire department is not sure which pit to go to, and I’m not helping at all. I’m even making it worse.”

Hydrogen sulfide deaths around the country

This exact situation played out in Fort Morgan last year.

In May 2024, one worker died and four others were hospitalized due to hydrogen sulfide exposure in an underground pump house at the Western Sugar Cooperative. One worker became overwhelmed by the H2S gas, while another employee was also overexposed while attempting a rescue, . That individual also lost consciousness and was later found unresponsive.

Data shows incidents involving hydrogen sulfide are relatively uncommon — but can often be deadly when they do occur.

There were at least 389 incidents involving 459 individuals between 1975 and 2019 involving livestock waste,Ìęaccording to a in the National Library of Medicine. Fifty-nine percent of these were fatal. Forty-nine rescue incidents involved a total of 119 secondary victims, meaning more than a quarter of the victims were secondary victims, including first responders, the study found.

Purdue University in 2024 tracked that year involving agricultural confined spaces, including 22 fatal and 29 non-fatal incidents. That represented a 38.6% decrease over the 83 cases in 2022, and a 7% decrease since 2023.

In 2016, a Wisconsin farmer from a manure pit. Five years later, while performing maintenance in a manure pit. Last year, after they fell into a manure tanker and were overwhelmed by the gases at a farm in New York.

‘There can never be enough training’

But two agricultural safety experts told The Denver Post that in their decades of work, they had never seen six people die from hydrogen sulfide in the same exposure incident.

This shocking and tragic story should spur legislators to take action to protect farmworkers from similar dangers, said Hunter Knapp, development director with , a Colorado organization dedicated to advancing food worker justice issues.

Potential solutions could include adding protections in state statute related to confined spaces and requiring workers dealing with hydrogen sulfide to wear gas monitors, he said.

The Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment previously said it is not aware of any state certifications or training required for people who work in areas with potential high exposure to hydrogen sulfide.

The Colorado Department of Labor and Employment said it does not enforce any statutes related to the training or regulation of the toxic gas.

Ultimately, it’s important to increase awareness and training so workers can prepare themselves for these workplace dangers, said David Douphrate, associate director of the at Colorado State University.

“When it comes to the protection of human life,” he said, “there can never be enough training.”