Youth hockey team from Santa Clarita involved in fatal car crash in Colorado

A girls ice hockey team from Santa Clarita was involved in a deadly car crash while visiting Colorado, NBC Los Angeles learned Thursday.

The driver of the van was killed, and eight people were injured in the crash just before 9 a.m. Colorado time on Interstate 70 in Clear Creek County.

The Sprinter van carrying 10 people collided with a Colorado Department of Transportation snow plow, according to the Clear Creek County Sheriff’s Office. Among the passengers were three girls from the Santa Clarita Lady Flyers, which is made up of 15 young athletes at age 12 and under.

The van driver, who died at the scene, was the father of a player on the team, Prescott Littlefield, president of the Santa Clarita Flyers, told NBC Los Angeles.

“This is the kind of thing you hear about on the news, but it’s never someone you know or people you know,” Littlefield said. “I just completely knocked me back, knocked the wind out of me.”

Eight people, including five youths and three adults, were hospitalized. Details about the conditions of the injured passengers, identified by the sheriff’s department as members of a California hockey team, were not immediately available.

The president of the hockey team confirmed to NBC Los Angeles that the Santa Clarita Flyers athletes were in the van at the time of the crash.

Families and friends connected to the Lady Flyers have been reached out to the team to offer support, Littlefield added.

“The whole hockey community is really rallying around these girls and what they and their family are going through,” the hockey team president said.

Two other vehicles also were involved in the crash on the snowy interstate west of Denver.

Images from the crash site showed the roadway was covered with snow and mud. The weather forecast said Clear Creek County received snow showers amid below-freezing temperatures.

Emergency officials said drivers are discouraged from traveling in the area due to poor weather conditions.

The Santa Clarita Flyers’ website said the youth hockey organization is based in Valencia, playing out of The Cube Ice and Entertainment Center since being founded in 2000.