DENVER—Snowy and icy conditions Monday morning led to one fatal accident in northeastern Colorado and a sloppy and slow commute across the Denver metro area.
Cars slipped and slid off the sides roads. Police shut down traffic on eastbound Colfax Avenue near the state Capitol Monday morning after a Regional Transportation District bus got stuck in the snow.
Snowfall amounts ranged from 5 inches to 8 inches in the west-Denver suburbs and Boulder and from 2 inches to 5 inches in Denver.
State plows were on the road by 5 a.m., said Stacy Stegman of the Colorado Department of Transportation. There were 90 plows on the streets in the Denver area by midmorning, she said.
State Trooper Ryan Sullivan said all the counties in the metro area were on accident alert but no major traffic accidents or injuries were reported.
Sullivan said the fatal accident happened just before 6 a.m. in Weld County on U.S. 34, when the driver of an eastbound Subaru Forester lost control, went through the median and onto westbound traffic, colliding with a Honda Accord. The driver of the Subaru, 50-year-old Viktor Boci, of Loveland, was killed in the crash. The driver of the Accord suffered moderate injuries.
Sullivan said the roads were icy and snowpacked at the time of the crash and the driver of the Subaru was going too fast.
Snow began tapering off by late morning and the National Weather Service canceled a winter weather advisory for the metro area and the foothills west of Denver. An advisory for the north and central mountains was issued through 5 p.m.
A high wind warning was in place for much of eastern Colorado through 7 p.m. Forecasters said winds up to 45 mph, with gusts up to 60 mph, could cause blowing snow and reduce visibility.
