Driver charged with felony vehicular homicide in Magnus White's death

The Boulder, Colorado District Attorney's office announced that a 23-year-old woman has been charged with felony vehicular homicide in connection with the death of promising cyclist Magnus White.

Yeva Smilianska of Westminster, Colorado, was taken into custody on Tuesday and will appear in court today on charges related to the July 29 crash that took White's life.

White was on his last training session before he was due to travel to the UCI Mountain Bike World Championships in Scotland, riding his bike on a 10-foot wide shoulder of Highway 119 when Smilianska, driving a Toyota Matrix, reportedly veered from her lane and fatally struck White from behind.

Smilianska's vehicle continued down the grass embankment, only stopping when it hit a fence.

In the intervening 20 weeks, the Colorado State Patrol investigated the cause of the crash before turning over the results to the DA's office.

The affidavit provided by the DA concluded that Smilianska most likely fell asleep at the wheel because she had not slept more than a couple hours the night before. Multiple witnesses described the vehicle veering suddenly to the right before striking White.

White's family issued a press release urging maximum punishment for Smilianska for the alleged reckless actions.

"Yeva Smilianska willfully and consciously chose to get behind the wheel of her car, engaging in reckless driving behavior," the statement read. "This devastating event occurred on a designated bike route, on a straight road with a 10’ wide shoulder, in broad daylight.

"Yeva Smilianska must be held accountable for her willful and conscious actions when she chose to get behind the wheel of her car that day. It is essential Yeva Smilianska be given the maximum penalty for her crime.

"Magnus’s death could have been prevented. It underscores the responsibility of every driver to safely operate their vehicle. Every time each of us gets into our car, every time we get on our bikes, every time we walk on a sidewalk, every time we walk in a parking lot, we all have an inherent trust that another driver will not strike and kill us. Yeva Smilianska shattered this trust."

The family launched a foundation in White's honour called "The White Line", and recently released the first of a planned series of videos called 'Lives Worth Remembering', giving a devastatingly frank account of White's death.