3 killed in deadly crash on Marksheffel ID'd; county to review intersection

The county will evaluate whether safety upgrades should be made to an intersection where three people were recently killed.

Colorado State Patrol says the driver of a Honda CRV ran the stop sign at the intersection of Space Village and Marksheffel. The vehicle was broadsided by an oncoming Ford F-150, and the impact sent both vehicles into the southbound lanes of Marsheffel where they were hit by a Jeep Cherokee.

"The Honda CRV did roll after the second impact, and all three adult occupants inside that Honda CRV did sustain fatal injuries," said Sgt. Jason Jones with State Patrol.

The driver was identified Tuesday as 75-year-old Margaret Martin, and her passengers were identified as 57-year-old Sherri McCrill and 58-year-old Douglas McCrill.

Jones said it appeared everyone in the CRV was wearing a seat belt, but the force of impact was just too much.

"This was an extremely violent collision at high speeds, and it would have been very difficult for anyone to survive this type of heavily damaged -- I should say carnage," he told 11 News.

Two people inside the Jeep were transported to the hospital with minor injuries. The driver in the F-150 also had minor injuries and drove himself to the hospital.

11 News reached out to El Paso County and asked if there were any plans to review the intersection to see if it needs a stoplight instead of a stop sign.

"The safety of our roads is always a priority. Once the county receives the final Colorado State Patrol accident report related to the accident at Marksheffel and Space Village, we will evaluate if any changes need to be made to enhance the safety of the intersection," county spokesperson Natalie Sosa said in response.

Regardless of what the county decides, State Patrol is imploring drivers to be more careful on the roads.

"It's just one of those things where we need people pay attention to the road. Put down their phone. Pay attention. If you're having a conversation with people in the vehicle -- and not to speculate, but the point is that we need people to pay attention to what they're doing. What the task at hand is," Jones said. "If you're operating a motor vehicle, your task at hand is safely operating that motor vehicle so that we don't have to come out to these types of these incidents, these crashes where, to be quite honest, it sure does look like that if we had somebody that was driving safely, operating their motor vehicle in a safe manner, we wouldn't have lost three people today."