Thornton hit and run: Colorado woman struck, killed on I-25 after rideshare driver left her on interstate, after getting ill. Adam Wooley, hit and run driver turns self in.
A female passenger was killed in a hit-and-run crash after her rideshare driver left her on the side of a Colorado interstate early New Year’s Day on account of her being ill.
The woman and her friends had gotten out of the car on the side of Northbound I-25 about 11 miles north of Denver just after 12.30am after she ‘became ill in the vehicle’ according to Thorton police.
The unidentified woman, only described as in her 20s, then ‘walked out into the roadway and was sideswiped by a dark truck that never stopped but continued driving’ on the highway, where the speed limit is 65 mph, police said.
The woman collapsed and was struck by a second car, which stopped and remained at the scene.
On Monday, 33-year-old Adam Wooley of nearby Fredrick, Colo., turned himself in as the hit-and-run driver, authorities said. He was charged with a hit-and-run involving death, and his truck was impounded.
Who’s at fault?
It is not likely the rideshare driver will face criminal charges, Thornton police Officer Jesus Mendez told the Denver Post.
‘I do know that is not the cause of the accident,’ he said. ‘It’s not that a vehicle ran off the side of the road and struck them. This person walked out into the roadway and was struck.’
Mendez said it wasn’t clear whether the woman vomited or became nauseous, or whether she vomited inside the vehicle or whether the driver pulled over to let her out to vomit. He could not say whether the woman was intoxicated.
Mendez also was not sure whether the driver kicked the woman out or whether she and her friends ended the rideshare voluntarily.
‘She paid; the ride was terminated,’ he said. ‘Who terminated it and what happened there, I do not know.’
