DENVER—Colorado’s second spring snowstorm in less than a week caused a traffic mess Monday morning, including an 18-car pileup, a school bus crash and at least five fatalities.
The morning storm was expected to bring less than an inch of snow to Denver but had dumped 6 inches by midmorning in some areas.
Traffic deaths occurred in three unrelated accidents on suburban Denver roads during the morning commute, Colorado State Patrol Trooper David Hall said. At least two of those deaths were caused when drivers lost control of their cars and crossed into oncoming traffic, Hall said.
Authorities said 58-year-old Mary Suiter of Longmont died when her 2002 Chrysler Sebring crossed the center line and hit an oncoming pickup truck on a two-lane state highway northeast of Denver. The truck driver was uninjured.
The wet, soggy snow was also blamed for an 18-vehicle pileup on eastbound Interstate 76 near Hudson, about 30 miles northeast of Denver. Hall said one person suffered serious injuries when four tractor-trailers and several passenger vehicles collided. Several more people suffered minor injuries.
Snow-slick roads were also blamed for a pileup on Interstate 70 near Strasburg, about 40 miles east of Denver. Rod Mead, operations manager for the Colorado Department of Transportation, said that pileup happened early Monday when at least one car stopped to help a stranded driver and was hit from behind by a truck. Four miles of the interstate were closed briefly Monday morning after the wreck, which left one person with critical injuries, Hall said.
Both interstates were back open by midafternoon.
The Colorado State Patrol said weather also was a factor in two fatal crashes in Weld County. The first happened at 6:35 a.m. Monday on Colorado 85 when a northbound car slid through the median and into the southbound lanes. An oncoming pickup truck collided the car, killing the car’s driver, 26-year-old Ayumi Yahiro of Aurora. The pickup driver, 29-year-old Justin Hiatt of Greeley, was taken to a hospital with minor injuries, the patrol said.
The second crash happened less than two hours later on Colorado 52 when a westbound vehicle went off the road, rolled into a ditch and hit an embankment. The driver, 70-year-old Francis G. Varela Jr. of Wiggins, died at the scene.
A school bus accident on a snowy rural road east of Colorado Springs Monday morning left the driver and a 5-year-old boy injured. Lt. Lari Sevene of the El Paso County Sheriff’s Department says a passenger truck T-boned a school bus, tipping the bus on its side. The crash happened just after 9:30 a.m. in the small town of Ellicott, about 25 miles east of Colorado Springs.
A 5-year-old boy was the only pupil aboard. The boy and the female driver were hospitalized with minor injuries, Hall said. It took rescuers almost an hour to get to the scene because of icy roads.
A total of 6.2 inches of snow was recorded in the west Denver suburb of Jefferson County, and 5 inches were reported in the east Denver suburb of Aurora.
Heavier snow was reported in the mountains, with 5 inches to 10 inches expected by the end of the day Monday in the mountain resort town of Breckenridge. The National Weather Service reported snow with thunder overnight at Monarch Pass, near Salida. Trace amounts of snow were recorded in far western Colorado.
Last week, a storm dropped up to a foot of snow on the eastern Colorado plains and up to a foot and a half in the mountains.
Hall said the snowy traffic mess across the state Monday came as people thought winter’s bluster was over.
“This storm I think really caught people off guard,” he said of Monday’s snow.
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