Driver in post-X-Games crash near Basalt pleads
A University of Colorado student who seriously injured another driver in January after drinking and smoking marijuana at the Winter X Games pleaded guilty Monday to vehicular assault.
Jack Galyon, 21, faces as many as three years in prison for the felony assault charge. He also pleaded guilty to misdemeanor driving while ability impaired and faces as many as six months in the Pitkin County Jail on that charge.
However, the District Attorney’s Office has agreed to recommend whatever sentencing parameters the probation department decides is most appropriate for Galyon, prosecutor Sarah Oszczakiewicz said. A report detailing those recommendations will be prepared before Galyon is sentenced Feb. 21.
Galyon attended a concert by Kygo on Jan. 31, which concluded the 2016 Winter X Games held at Buttermilk Mountain, according to a police report. He then drove west on Highway 82 in the middle of a blizzard, lost control of his Ford Escape and slid into the eastbound lanes.
Galyon, who admitted after the crash he was driving too fast, struck a Mini Cooper driven by Shafigheh Lubin, 53, head-on near Basalt. Lubin suffered multiple spinal fractures, a collapsed lung, a knee injury and a broken arm, leg and ankle, according to a civil lawsuit she filed in April.
That lawsuit is still pending.
Galyon admitted drinking two beers and a shot and smoking marijuana several hours before the crash, according to a police report. He failed roadside sobriety tests, and his breath-alcohol content was 0.095, which is above the 0.08 legal driving limit.
Police discovered a flask containing an unknown alcoholic beverage, broken beer bottles, marijuana and a marijuana grinder in Galyon’s vehicle after the crash, the report states.
Galyon, a Highlands Ranch native, was originally charged with vehicular assault while under the influence, DUI and having open containers of alcohol and marijuana in his car.
