Three 16-year-old Boulder residents were injured Thursday when the driver of the Volkswagen sedan they were riding in intentionally tried to skid around a steep embankment along U.S. 36 in Pinewood Springs, authorities said.

The Colorado State Patrol is investigating the one-car accident, which happened about 3 p.m.

Trooper Gilbert Mares said the vehicle was traveling east on the winding highway when the male driver apparently tried to "drift" through a sharp left turn.

"The driver, we suspect, was operating the vehicle in a reckless manner," Mares said, and he could face criminal charges.

Drifting is often associated with a type of street racing in which the driver skids through turns with all four wheels spinning faster than the car is moving, though Mares said investigators do not think the car was involved in a race at the time of the crash.

The vehicle apparently lost contact with the dry road during the tricky maneuver, hit a guardrail and rolled more than twice down the embankment where it landed on its roof, Mares said.

The driver was taken by helicopter to St. Anthony Central Hospital in Denver with serious injuries. The passengers, a male and a female, sustained minor to moderate injuries and were taken to Longmont United Hospital by ambulance, Mares said.

The names of the victims were withheld by authorities because they are all minors. Officials initially thought four teens were involved.

Mares said investigators are looking into whether the driver was violating Colorado's graduated driver's license laws, which limit the number of passengers new drivers can carry who are younger than 21 and are not family members.