Icy conditions on roads across Colorado triggered a nine-vehicle pile up, a rollover that injured five and an accident in which an RTD bus crashed into a home.
“The roads are slippery and icy,” said Gilbert Mares, Colorado State Patrol spokesman. “We’re suspecting people were going too fast for the conditions.”
Authorities temporarily closed C-470 between Santa Fe Drive to Sante Fe Drive and Kipling Parkway, Mares said. One person was taken to a hospital with non-life-threatening injuries. The road has reopened.
Eastbound Interstate 70 also was closed for a few hours near Idaho Springs following a 9:30 a.m. accident that injured five people, including an 8-year-old girl who was flown by helicopter to Children’s Hospital with serious head injuries. The highway has reopened.
An RTD bus slid on ice and slammed into a home at 1980 S. Dahlia St. about 10:45 a.m., severing a gas line. The driver, a passenger and a woman inside the home at the time were not injured, said Joseph Gonzales, Denver fire spokesman.
Elsewhere around the state, roads that were closed Friday night because of snow, including southbound Interstate 25 near the New Mexico border, have reopened, said Mike Murray, spokesman for the Colorado Department of Transportation.
“For the most part conditions should improve today,” Murray said.
Around the state, a lot of cars slipped off highways after Friday’s snowstorm, but there were no serious accidents, Mares said.
One to 5 inches of snow fell in the Denver metro area, with the most snow falling south of town, said Jim Kalina, meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Boulder. He said up to 7 inches fell in the mountains.
Temperatures will rise to the upper 30s Sunday, Kalina said, with cloudy skies but no snow expected.
By Christmas, there is a 30 percent chance of snow in Denver and 50 percent in the mountains.
Kirk Mitchell: 303-954-1206 or kmitchell@denverpost.com
