Drivers arrested in fatal crash in downtown Colorado Springs were racing at 70 mph, police say

Two drivers allegedly racing each other at more than double the speed limit in south downtown Colorado Springs were arrested Friday in a fatal wreck in which a 64-year-old man was killed, police said.

Norman G. Giddings of Fountain died when his sedan was struck broadside by a sport utility vehicle, sending his car up on the sidewalk. Giddings was thrown from the vehicle into the front yard of a business at the southwest corner of South Nevada Avenue and East Cimarron Street.

According to police, Alisha Jade Beauchamp, 32, who was heading south on Nevada, was racing another vehicle at more than 70 mph about 6:25 a.m. on Nov. 2 when she crashed into Giddings’ vehicle. Giddings, who had been traveling north, was turning left onto Cimarron.

Beauchamp and a young child riding with her were taken to a hospital with minor injuries.

The speed limit on that stretch of Nevada is 35 mph.

Beauchamp and the driver she allegedly was racing, Brayden Abraham Daniel Bucholz, 26, were arrested Friday on suspicion of vehicular homicide, a felony, court records show. Both were booked into El Paso County jail on $10,000 bond.

Beauchamp and Bucholz both have a history of traffic offenses in El Paso County, court records show.

Bucholz pleaded guilty in 2014 to careless driving, then pleaded guilty to driving 10 to 19 mph over the speed limit in 2015. In 2013 and again in 2017, he pleaded guilty to failing to display proof of insurance.

Beauchamp pleaded guilty to allowing an unauthorized person to drive a vehicle in 2008 and 2012, as well as failing to display proof of insurance in 2005.

Giddings’ death was the 45th traffic fatality this year, two more than the previous record set in 1986. The total has since climbed to 47.

“These are senseless fatalities,” police spokesman Lt. Howard Black said Monday.

Several of this year’s unprecedented number of fatal crashes have been caused by street racing.

In May, Black said there are organized groups that engage in illegal street races in Colorado Springs, but sometimes races start spontaneously.

Police get hundreds of calls annually about suspected street racers, he said.

“It’s an issue not just in Colorado Springs,” Black said. “It’s an issue across the country.”