A construction flagger has been charged with criminally negligent homicide in Fort Collins, Colorado, four months after a semi truck working on a road project struck and killed a woman who was walking her bicycle across the street — and the police investigation that produced the charge also cleared the truck driver completely. Fort Collins Police Services (FCPS) announced on November 4, 2026, that Rudolph Baldivia, 64, had been booked into the Larimer County Jail on a felony count of criminally negligent homicide in the death of Catherine Withrow, 53, a longtime Fort Collins educator.

Source: Fort Collins Police Services via CDLLife

The death happened on July 6, 2026, at the intersection of East Mulberry Street and Whedbee Street in Fort Collins. Withrow was walking her bicycle across Mulberry Street with construction personnel present when she was struck by a semi truck that was part of the construction project, officials said. She died at the scene. The Larimer County Coroner's Office, which responded to the intersection that day, later identified her formally as Catherine Lee Withrow of Fort Collins.

Source: Larimer County Coroner's Office

What the coroner recorded in July

The coroner's office recorded the medical facts within days of the crash. A full forensic autopsy was performed on July 8, 2026, at the Larimer County Forensic Sciences Center by Dr. J. White, D.O. The coroner recorded the manner of death as 'Accident' and the cause of death as multiple blunt force injuries. A coroner's manner-of-death ruling answers the medical question of how a death is classified; it does not decide criminal responsibility — that question belonged to the police investigation and now belongs to the court, which is why the criminal case has arrived four months after the medical ruling.

Source: Larimer County Coroner's Office

The investigation: the driver was not at fault, police say

FCPS said the charge followed months of what it called 'comprehensive investigation work.' The department's Collision Reconstruction and Scene Handling team — its specialist crash unit — led the investigation of what police called a complex case requiring significant processing, interviews and follow-up. Their conclusion, in the department's words, was that 'the driver of the semi-truck was operating the vehicle within established safety protocols and that the construction flagger had positioned himself and the bicyclist in an unsafe place, making it impossible for the semi-driver to see either of them.' On that finding, police say, the criminal responsibility for the death rests not with the man behind the wheel of the truck, but with the flagger whose job was to position people safely around it.

Source: Fort Collins Police Services via CDLLife

FCPS Chief Jeff Swoboda addressed the family directly in the announcement: 'I recognize that today's announcement will not lessen the pain this family and so many friends have endured, nor will it erase the grief they will continue to carry. But my hope is that today brings some measure of closure, knowing that we have taken an important step toward accountability and justice.' 9NEWS Denver also reported the charge, describing Withrow as a longtime Fort Collins educator whose death over the summer had been under investigation since July.

Source: 9NEWS Denver via Spot On Colorado

What criminally negligent homicide alleges

The charge is explained here as general background, not as a finding in this case. Criminally negligent homicide, in general terms, alleges that a death was caused by criminal negligence — a failure to perceive a substantial and unjustifiable risk that a reasonable person would have seen, in circumstances where that failure is treated as a gross deviation from ordinary care. It is a different allegation from an intentional killing and from a simple accident: the coroner can classify the same death medically as an 'Accident' while prosecutors allege that one person's negligence around it was criminal. Baldivia was booked on one felony count, FCPS said.

Source: Fort Collins Police Services via CDLLife

Why truck drivers are reading this case closely

For the Punjabi and other truck drivers who read this site — and who drive work zones on highways and city streets every week — this case turns on the exact fear that follows every big-rig driver into a construction zone: a person on foot, inside the space the truck is working in, where the driver cannot see them. Police here did not treat the death as the driver's fault simply because his was the largest vehicle. A specialist reconstruction team spent months on processing, interviews and follow-up before concluding the driver had followed the project's safety protocols and could not see the flagger or Withrow from the cab. The accountability, on the police account, sits with the traffic-control decision that put them there. That distinction — between the driver who struck someone and the person who positioned them in a blind spot — is the heart of this case, and it is why the charge is against the flagger.

Source: Fort Collins Police Services via CDLLife

What happens next

Baldivia's case now moves through the courts in Larimer County, where a judge will decide the charge on the evidence — including the reconstruction team's work — rather than on the police announcement. FCPS did not announce a court date, bond outcome or plea in the reports used here, and the department's investigation announcement closed with its message to Withrow's family rather than with further operational detail. Awaaz Punjab will update this story when a first court appearance, a plea, or any statement from Baldivia or his representatives is reported.

Source: 9NEWS Denver via Spot On Colorado