An intense but short-lived snowstorm pounded commuters Monday morning — closing roads, causing an 18-vehicle pileup and leaving three people dead in crashes.
The intense weather “made things crazy,” said Trooper David Hall, a Colorado State Patrol spokesman. “This spring snow really slicks up roads fast.”
The first fatal accident happened at 6:30 a.m., when a woman lost control of her car on Colorado Boulevard south of East 151st Avenue in Adams County and was hit by a pickup.
The driver of the car died. She was identified as Mary L. Suiter, 58, of Longmont, the campus supervisor at Horizon High School in Thornton.
Janelle Albertson, spokeswoman for the Adams 12 Five-Star School District, said, “She had lots of involvement with the kids. She walked the hallways, helped kids find their way to classes and maintained security on the Horizon campus.”
Teachers asked students to write what Suiter meant to them and how her loss has affected them. Albertson said students also are creating a banner in Suiter’s memory.
Another fatal crash happened at about the same time. Investigators think speed and the snowy road caused Ayumi Yahiro, 26, to spin out near Weld County Road 24 1/2 near Fort St. Vrain. She crossed the median and collided with a pickup.
The third fatal accident was about 9 a.m. on Colorado 52, 12 miles east of Hudson. Francis G. Varela Jr., 70, of Wiggins was killed when he ran off the slick road into a ditch.
The morning snow didn’t last long, but it came down in a strong burst and combined with gusty winds to cause “blizzardlike conditions” in some areas, according to the National Weather Service.
The town of Strasburg, in Adams County, got 3 inches of snow, and Interstate 70 was closed near there for three hours Monday while a six-car chain-reaction crash was cleared. One person was critically injured.
On Interstate 76, a multivehicle pileup at 8:15 a.m. near Hudson closed one side of the highway for 2½ hours and seriously injured one person. Eighteen vehicles were involved in the accident, including four semis.
On the plains east of Colorado Springs, icy conditions caused a pickup truck to skid through a stop sign and hit an Ellicott School District 22 special-needs bus about 9:50 a.m. The bus rolled. The driver and a 5-year-old child were injured and taken to a Colorado Springs hospital.
