COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo.
One plumber was killed and another seriously injured when a chain-reaction crash pinned the men between two parked vehicles on Monday, Colorado Springs police said.
The deadly collision happened about 9 a.m. in the 1400 block of North Nevada Avenue.
Police said a gray Nissan Pathfinder was driving south on Nevada when the driver took evasive action to avoid being struck by a small black truck.
The Pathfinder slammed into two parked cars, forcing a car into the two men who were unloading equipment from the back of a white plumbing van, police said.
The two plumbers were pinned between two vehicles and had to be freed by firefighters, police said.
"It just kind of sounded like an explosion," Karleen Graham told the
. "Everything just went in the air from the impact."
"Then they just laid there," said Graham, who was standing outside waiting for the plumbers to work in her laundry room.
One of the men, identified by co-workers as 46-year-old Mark Mechelle, died at Penrose Hospital, according to the Gazette. He worked for Allied Plumbing, said Daniel Richardson, the business co-owner.
"He was awesome," Richardson told the Gazette. ?He had integrity, loyalty, anything you could want in a co-worker and a friend.?
Ken Baker, 44, a co-owner of the Allied Plumbing, was taken to the hospital with broken bones, Richardson told the newspaper. Baker underwent surgery on Monday night.
The crash remained under investigation, and police said they were searching for the driver of the small black truck.
Police asked anyone who witnessed the crash or had information on the black truck to call the Colorado Springs Police Department at 719-444-7000 or Crimes Stoppers at 719-634-STOP.
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