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Passenger dies a week after SUV hits wrestling team school bus in Lakewood

A passenger in a vehicle that crashed into a wrestling team’s school bus in Lakewood died Sunday after being hospitalized for over a week, according to police.

Julio Vasquez-Gonzalez, 18, a passenger in the suspect’s SUV, died from his injuries Sunday, according to a Lakewood police posting on X.

Police on Thursday arrested Andrew Logan Miller, 22, who allegedly collided with the school bus while driving an SUV near the intersection of Kipling Street and West 6th Avenue on Dec. 6. Police said speed “played a major role” in the crash.

The crash involved a bus carrying students and coaches from Grand Junction Central High School headed back to Mesa County from a wrestling tournament, according to Mesa County School District 51.

Police said 16 people, from both the bus and the SUV, were transported to local hospitals following the crash. Injuries ranged in levels of severity, authorities said. Family members of some of the victims told the Denver Gazette’s news partner, 9News, that their injuries ranged from stitches to broken bones.

Several occupants of both the SUV and the bus remain in the hospital, police said Sunday. Four people occupied the SUV, including Miller and Vasquez-Gonzalez.

Andrew Logan Miller bus crash
The Lakewood Police Department arrested 22-year-old Andrew Logan Miller in connection to the crash that injured high school students. (Courtesy Lakewood Police Department)

At around 7:30 p.m. on Dec. 6, the bus was driving northbound on Kipling Street turning left on westbound West 6th Avenue. There, an SUV traveling on Kipling struck the bus “at a very high rate of speed,” the police said.

Authorities are still investigating the crash, according to police.

With the death of Vasquez-Gonzalez, police said the district attorney’s office will consider additional charges.

Miller was arrested on suspicion of seven counts of vehicular assault, speeding 40 mph over the limit, reckless driving and child abuse, among other charges.

Denver Gazette reporter Sage Kelley contributed to this article.


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