A man on a bicycle crossing Colfax Avenue was hit by a car this afternoon near Civic Center.
The accident happened at about 2 p.m. at the intersection of 15th Street and West Colfax Avenue in front of The Denver Post building.
The victim – who told a witness that he was 51 – was taken by ambulance to a local hospital.
Jill Stahley, 18, of Highlands Ranch, was in a vehicle heading east on Colfax when the accident unfolded in front of her.
“I heard the impact of the bike being hit by the car,” said Stahley, who stopped to call 911 and aid the bicyclist. “He was crossing at the crosswalk.”
Stahley said the victim was conscious. He suffered a cut on a hand that was bleeding, and complained of back pain, and pain in an arm.
Stahley said the bicyclist had a green light to cross Colfax.
“Traffic was stopped, at least in our direction,” for a red light, Stahley said.
The driver of the car — a late-model, dark, Chevrolet sedan — drifted through a red light, Stahley said.
The driver of the Chevy identified herself as 72-year-old Marsha Berger.
Berger, who stopped on Colfax immediately after the collision, was shaken by the accident and worried about the bicyclist.
“I’m upset, I’m hoping he’s OK,” she said. “I was looking at, I thought, at a green light.”
After the accident, an additional fender-bender happened as one car clipped another, knocking a headlight off of one of the vehicles. Both drivers, who were heading west on Colfax, stopped and exchanged information with police. Neither was injured.
The two accidents tied up traffic along the typically busy section of downtown.
Kieran Nicholson: 303-954-1822 or knicholson@denverpost.com.
