A crash that injured an Arvada woman and killed her horse in early December is raising concerns in Jefferson County about the impact of surging development on equestrians, cyclists and other pedestrians.

Laura Wolf was riding her horse, Griffin, in unincorporated Jefferson County on the afternoon of Dec. 2 with plans to go trail riding when she was hit by a car that ran a stop sign at the intersection of West 52nd Avenue and Eldridge Street.

Wolf, a middle school teacher in Arvada, started taking riding lessons at six years old. She’s owned Griffin for seven years.

Wolf hit the roof of the car and then the road, where she quickly realized that Griffin’s front leg was shattered and he would have to be put down. She called a veterinarian, who responded to the scene.

“It was an extremely traumatic event,” Wolf said. “Anyone who has an animal doesn’t want to have to put them down, but to have to put him down because of someone else’s negligence… it’s extremely traumatic.”

Wolf sustained a concussion in the crash and said she has just started to process what happened to her and Griffin.

The driver was cited for failing to stop at a stop sign, according to the Colorado State Patrol. The agency is considering additional charges after Wolf reported her concussion.

News of the crash and Griffin’s death has spread across the local equestrian community, and on Dec. 11 nearly 250 people attended a meeting in person and online organized by the Arvada Area Horseman’s Association.

The group was already discussing how local organizations could work together to preserve Arvada’s equestrian heritage, said association President Scott Aschermann.

“What we’re talking about is an Arvada equestrian master plan,” Aschermann said. “I’ve been in Arvada my whole life and watched it disappear. With all of the development, how can we make sure that some of that equestrian heritage is kept?”

Wolf’s crash put the group’s efforts into hyperspeed as community interest in the issue spiked, Aschermann said. The association is putting together a task force to determine next steps and identify common goals among other equestrian groups.

The last horse fatality caused by a crash in Arvada that Aschermann can recall was in 2017, but near misses are far, far more common, he said.

“It’s primarily because of the mass influx of people who don’t have a horse background and have no idea how dangerous it is to drive closely to a horse,” he said. “It’s also just the volume of people in the last decade that’s increased so tremendously. It used to be you could find a gap in traffic (while riding,) and now it’s just constant.”

An inventory of equine and agriculture facilities maintained by the Jefferson County Equine and Agriculture Heritage Commission lists 33 facilities that offer horseback riding in the county, nine of which are in Arvada.

Data on crashes in Jefferson County from the Colorado State Patrol shows there have been 80 crashes involving animals and 19 involving pedestrians so far this year.

While the agency does not categorize crashes by the type of animal involved, summaries of each incident written by troopers show that Wolf’s crash was the only crash involving a horse in Jefferson County this year. In Jefferson County and statewide, most crashes between vehicles and animals involve deer or elk.

There were 79 crashes involving animals in Jefferson County in 2022, none of which involved horses, and 22 crashes involving pedestrians, according to Colorado State Patrol records.

Statewide, troopers have responded to 3,051 crashes involving animals so far this year — 24 of which involved horses — and 117 involving pedestrians. None of the crashes involving horses mentioned a rider.

“I think it’s important that people understand this is our heritage, this is what Arvada has been and we really want to maintain that and keep that part of the city,” Aschermann said.

Wolf said she hopes to see the creation of safer ways for riders to get to trails and horse arenas, whether that’s dedicated horse lanes on busy roadways or installing rumble strips.

“The next step is to make the city aware that this horse community is suffering due to overdevelopment and lack of safe places to ride our horses,” she said. “If they’re going to continue to develop, they need to implement safety features on their roads to make sure incidents like this don’t happen again.”

The concerns raised by equestrians in Jefferson County are not isolated — fatal crashes involving pedestrians and bicyclists this year have already surpassed 2022 totals, according to the Colorado Department of Transportation’s most recent report, which includes data through October.

There were 104 fatal crashes involving pedestrians reported from January to October and 19 fatal crashes involving bicyclists, according to the agency.

State Rep. Lindsey Daugherty, D-Arvada, attended the Dec. 11 meeting after receiving roughly 30 emails from constituents about the crash.

Daugherty said she was there to listen and brainstorm about possible solutions, and she hopes to continue working with the group moving forward.

One issue raised at the meeting is that road safety is an issue for all pedestrians, not just those on horseback, Daugherty said.

“I do think there might be room for a broader conversation as far as what we can do,” she said. “I’m a cyclist and it’s really scary for me, hearing about people who bike all the time training for big races and getting hit and killed. Anything we can do in that realm would be helpful.”

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