(The following story appeared on the Greeley Tribune website on June 20.)
GREELEY, Colo. — A Weld County road grader operator was killed when his maintainer and a train collided at about 1:30 p.m. south of Fort Lupton.
Doug Wigham, 30, of Greeley, was airlifed to Denver Health Medical Center where he died a few hours later, according Margie Martinez, spokeswoman for the Weld County Sheriff’s Office. The crash happened at the intersection of Weld County Roads 27 and 6, about four miles south of Fort Lupton, and less than half a mile east of U.S. 85 on Weld 6.
Martinez said Wigham, a Weld employee for about 10 years, was driving westbound on Weld 6 and grading the road when he was struck by the train. The train then dragged the grader 75-100 yards until the train came to a stop — leaving the grader bent in half and the cab completely torn off from the rest of the vehicle, Martinez said.
“He was kind of grading the road, watching what he was doing and the timing was such that he happened to be on the tracks at the time that the train was coming through,” Martinez said.
An exact cause of death is unknown, however an autopsy is planned for 1 p.m. today, according to Marcia Vincent, the Weld County deputy coroner investigating the case. Vincent said she was “perplexed” as to how Wigham did not see the train, as there are no trees or obstructions to hide the train as it approached.
Weld sheriff’s deputies are also still investigating the crash.
This is the 21st fatal on Weld County roads this year. This same time last year, 26 people had been killed on Weld County roads.