Personal Injury Law

The funeral for Officer Michael Builta who died after a motorcycle crash has been scheduled for noon on Saturday July 18.

Services will be held at the First United Methodist Church located at 420 N. Nevada Avenue.  Following the service, there will be a reception at the CSPD Stetson Hills Division Community Room located at 4110 Tutt Blvd. 

Swan-Law Funeral Home, located at 501 N. Cascade Avenue, Colorado Springs, CO 80903 is handling the funeral arrangements.  Any cards or flowers should be sent there. 

The 34-year-old Michael Builta was riding the 2008 Harley Davidson Electra Glide motorcycle through an intersection when a minivan made a left turn in front of him.

Builta was not wearing a helmet at the time of the crash and the El Paso County Coroner has ruled the cause of Officers Builta’s death as multiple head trauma injuries.

The driver of the 2000 Chevrolet Venture Mini-Van, 36-year-old Pei C. Lo of Colorado Springs, was not harmed in the crash.  Her 11-year-old child was transported to the hospital with a head injury.  She is listed in stable condition at the Denver Children’s Hospital and is expected to recover from her injuries. Both the girl and her mother were wearing seat-belts.

This is the second motorcycle accident involving an off-duty CSPD officer in two months.

At this time, no citations have been issued and the investigation is on-going. There is no evidence of impaired driving on the part of either driver/operator in the crash. Neither weather nor roadway conditions were a factor in the crash.

The intersection of Tutt Blvd and Barnes Road is listed 23rd on the Top 25 Accident locations in Colorado Springs during 2008. The accident happened around 5:30 p.m. and the intersection re-opened just before 10PM, after accident investigators performed a complete survey of the scene.   

This was the 10th traffic crash fatality in 2009. Of those, five have been motorcycle riders/passengers. At this time last year, there were 13 traffic crash fatalities. Of those, two were motorcycle riders/passengers.

Officer Builta has been a member of the CSPD since January of 2005. He was assigned to the Sand Creek Division as a Patrol Officer on the Midnight Shift.