A 16-year-old girl who had been drinking and driving was hit by a van as she tried to flee deputies on foot, the Arapahoe County Sheriff’s Office said.
Sheriff’s deputies were dispatched at about 11 p.m. Thursday to the 5700 block of East Arapahoe Road after a report of a car that had run off the road and into a field.
The driver of the car was trying to flee the scene, responding deputies were told.
When deputies arrived, they found a blue Hyundai Accent that had hit a pole and was high-centered on a dirt mound, the sheriff’s office said.
Deputies said the teen was “intoxicated,” and when firefighters with the South Metro Fire Protection District attempted to take the girl to a hospital for evaluation, she tried to run from the scene on Arapahoe Road, the sheriff’s office said.
A deputy grabbed the fleeing teen by the arm when he saw a vehicle heading at them. A 2004 Ford minivan swerved to avoid hitting the deputy and girl, but the girl was struck.
“He (the deputy) was trying to hold her back,” Sheriff Grayson Robinson said.
The girl was taken to a local hospital, where she is in stable condition, Robinson said. The cause of the initial accident is under investigation.
Kieran Nicholson: 303-954-1822 or knicholson@denverpost.com
