Tuesday’s snow was timed perfectly to enchant children who long for a white Christmas.
And with relatively light traffic on the roads, the timing also helped highway crews who spent the holiday trying to plow the area’s major thoroughfares.
Still, some major routes remained slushy as of late afternoon Tuesday, forcing motorists to slow down and take it easy.
Not everyone heeded the caution, and by early evening police were reporting numerous accidents, especially as slushy and wet highways turned icy.
Interstate 270 at Quebec Street was an ice rink at 5 p.m., a police officer reported as she begged dispatchers to send a sanding truck to the location.
Earlier in the afternoon, RTD crews still hadn’t plowed park-n-Ride lots at the Yale and Broadway/I-25 light-rail stations. Yet because few passengers were using the train on the holiday, not many vehicles were in the lots, and RTD’s crews had plenty of time to get lots clear for this morning’s rush hour. The Regional Transportation District typically hires contractors to plow parking lots and shovel snow from rail stations.
With most stores closed Tuesday, shopping centers also had time to get their lots ready for today’s post-Christmas shopping frenzy.
For some on Tuesday, work was the farthest thing from their mind.
“We recently moved here from California, and this is our first white Christmas ever,” said an obviously pleased Eric Chandler, who with sons Ian and Chris was hitting the snow hill at Denver’s Robinson Park. In their hands were two of the boys’ Christmas presents — Polar Flyer and Arctic Flyer sleds.
