FORT COLLINS, Colo. — The man suspected of killing one person after driving his pickup truck onto a sidewalk in Old Town Fort Collins in late August was charged Friday with several counts, including vehicular homicide, the Larimer County District Attorney’s Office announced Friday.
Van Lemaster, 88, of Cheyenne, Wyoming, was charged with one count of vehicular homicide, two counts of reckless endangerment and four counts of vehicular assault. He was booked Friday into the Larimer County Jail on those charges, according to a news release.
Watch Denver7's previous report on this story in the video below:
The fatal crash along Mountain Avenue on Aug. 29 happened at the height of the city's Tour de Fat celebration, an annual costume bicycle festival that brings thousands of bicyclists to Old Town.
Newly obtained arrest documents give insight into what led up to the crash.
According to the arrest documents, Lemaster had finished having lunch with a woman and was trying to leave a parking space off of Mountain Ave. The Tour de Fat parade was wrapping up so there were many bicyclists and pedestrians in the area.
Witnesses told police, the woman was outside of the Chevrolet Silverado truck Lemaster was driving, saying things like, "We aren't a part of this" and "We just want to leave" while trying to stop the bicyclists.
The documents say Lemaster then backed out of the spot, colliding into the back passenger door of a car driving down Mountain Ave. Investigators say data from Lemaster's Airbag Control Module and Front Camera Module showed that the accelerator pedal was fully depressed at the time.
According police, after that crash, Lemaster then pressed all the way down on the accelerator pedal a second time, this time driving forward and onto the crowded sidewalk and patio.
Police said multiple people were hit or run over. Six people, including Lemaster, were taken to the hospital. One man, Joshua Douglass, died of his injuries.
According to the arrest documents, while at the hospital, Lemaster told one of the police officers, "he attempted to back out three or four times before he 'just gunned it', to get out of the parking spot.
Lemaster's Chevrolet Silverado was equipped with a Front Camera Module, according to the arrest affidavit. The documents say the FCM detected "Pedestrian-Adult" in the Pedestrian Warning Sytem. Investigators said the truck was also equipped with an Automatic Emergency Braking System (AEB) which was programmed to a setting called "Alert and Brake" which was disabled when Lemaster used the accelerator pedal.
The arrest documents read: "Had Lemaster not overridden the AEB, the vehicle would have been able to stop before striking the pedestrians."
Investigators ruled out impairment as a factor in the crash.
"This was an incredibly tragic crash that affected many in our community. Our entire agency will continue to be there for all who were impacted and support them as this case progresses through the criminal justice system,” said Fort Collins Police Chief Jeff Swoboda in a statement. “I’m grateful for the diligence, professionalism, and thoroughness that our agency displayed while both responding to this incident and the subsequent investigation."
On Friday, a judge granted Lemaster a $75,000 Personal Recognizance bond and prohibited him from driving any type of motor vehicle.
Lemaster will be back in court on October 22.
Read the arrest affidavit here or in the embed below:
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