Two people died in separate traffic crashes Monday morning in Denver, and two others died in an Aurora wreck.
At about 7:20 a.m., a driver heading east on East Colfax Avenue lost control of his vehicle, veered into the westbound lanes and hit another vehicle head-on, said John White, a Denver police spokesman.
The motorist in the westbound vehicle died. The 17-year-old driver of the vehicle that went out of control was held by police, White said. A third vehicle was hit in the crash, which happened at the intersection of East Colfax and Harrison Street and closed Colfax in both directions during the morning commute.
The other Denver fatal accident occurred about 8:30 a.m. in the eastbound lanes of West Sixth Avenue and shut down the highway near Federal Boulevard, said Phillip Embry, a Colorado Department of Transportation spokesman.
Earlier, about 8:23 a.m., three vehicles were involved in a noninjury accident on West Sixth Avenue, White said.
Motorists from the noninjury accident were outside their vehicles looking over the damage when a fourth vehicle hit one of the vehicles. The vehicle that was struck hit and killed a man who was standing in the highway, White said.
The names of the victims were not released. Eastbound lanes reopened shortly after noon.
In Aurora, a driver and passenger who fled a minor accident died early Monday when the truck they were in crashed into a steel pole at a high speed, police said.
The minor hit-and-run accident happened about 1:20 a.m. in the 9500 block of East Colfax Avenue.
A short time later, a patrol officer spotted a white Ford F450 truck eastbound on East Colfax with no lights on and speeding about 70 mph in a 35-mph zone.
It matched the description of the vehicle in the hit-and-run, police said. The officer pursued the Ford but lost it.
The speeding truck ran off Colfax just east of Moline Street and hit a pole in the 11500 block of East Colfax, police said.
The driver died at the scene; the passenger died at University Hospital.
Neither was wearing a seat belt, and the driver was partially ejected from the truck.
The names of those involved in the Aurora crash were not released.
Kieran Nicholson: 303-954-1822 or knicholson@denverpost.com
