Police name man charged with reckless driving
Dodge Hellcat hits side of truck hard enough to knock it onto its roof
Loveland police have charged the driver of a Dodge Charger Hellcat that crashed into the side of a Chevy Silverado truck on Sunday with reckless driving.
Police officials on Monday released more information about the Sunday crash, which occurred near a car show with hundreds of people around.
Jorge Zuniga-diaz, 45, of For t Collins pulled out of a parking lot where a Loveland Cars and Coffee car show was underway and, less than a block up nor thbound Lincoln Avenue, spun sideways and broadsided the full-size pickup, according to information from Loveland police.
Videos of the crash have spread around social media and the internet, showing the muscle car turning onto the 400 block of South Lincoln, accelerating, losing control and veering into the passenger side of the truck midway through the block. The impact knocked the truck onto its roof.
One of the two people in the truck, the driver, Heather Marie Zaske, 42, of Berthoud, was transported to Medical Center of the Rockies in Loveland after saying she felt faint, said Tom Hacker, spokesman for the Loveland Police Department. He said she was outside the truck talking with police and medics before she was taken to the hospital.
Information on whether Zaske was treated at Medical Center of the Rockies
was not available, only that she was not a patient there Monday.
A passenger in the truck, Zaske’s husband, Ricky Zaske, also of Berthoud, was not injured, and neither was the driver of the Hellcat, Zuniga-diaz, according to police.
The only charge filed was one of reckless driving, which Colorado Revised Statutes explains is driving “in such a manner as to indicate either a wanton or a willful disregard for the safety of persons or property.”
“There was no intent there that anyone can determine,” Hacker said when asked about how the crash occurred. “This car just got away from this guy.”
The crash occurred just before 10 a.m. on Sunday in front of Blue Ribbon Auto Body, 401 S. Lincoln Ave. One lane of Lincoln was closed until 10:39 a.m., at which time police closed both lanes for another 40 minutes.
Hacker said that a car show was happening in two different parking lots, one on each side of the one-way Lincoln Avenue, so hundreds of people were around when the crash occurred. Videos confirm a crowd of people during the crash and in the aftermath.
About six police officers responded to the crash to help keep people safe because of the number of pedestrians walking between the two parking lots, according to Hacker.
“We had a lot of people just trying to manage the pedestrian flow,” he said.
After the crash, two dif ferent residents posted on the Colorado Cars and Coffee Facebook page that they did not condone the behavior that led to the crash and that the Loveland car enthusiast group was being disbanded because of what happened.
One Longmont man, who said he was co-host of the Loveland event, could not be reached for comment on Monday, but posted on Sunday: “Loveland c&c will be no more after this. We are super sorry to say this. …”