Five months after 17-year-old Colorado USA cyclist Magnus White was hit and killed while on a final training ride just hours before heading to UCI Mountain Bike World Championships in Scotland, the automobile driver has been arrested and charged with reckless vehicular homicide.

Yeva Smilianska, 23, was arrested Tuesday evening by officers with the Colorado Longmont Police Department and is being held in the Boulder County Jail with $75,000 bond.

According to initial police reports, Smilianska was driving a Toyota Matrix in the same direction as White when she drifted out of her lane and crashed into White while he was riding on the road shoulder wearing a bright red-white-blue team USA jersey. She claimed this “was due to steering difficulty,” according to the crash report.

Denver’s 9News reports a post-crash investigation concluded Smilianska likely drifted off to sleep based on eyewitness statements and a text she sent about 20 minutes prior. It read, “I’m falling asleep. So I’m going home.”

The sudden impact of Smilianska’s car ejected White off his bike. He was transported to a hospital, where doctors pronounced him decreased.

Magnus White was an amateur USA National Champion and on the path to become a world-class cyclist. He won the 2021 Junior 17-18 USA Cyclocross National Championships and competed with the USA Cycling National Team for a season in Europe. 

Reckless vehicular homicide is a class 4 felony in Colorado, carrying a 2 to 6 year prison sentence and/or a $2,000 to $500,000 fine.

Photo Credit: BCSO, Magnus White family

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