Black ice on Interstate 25 north of Monument Hill triggered a 34-vehicle pileup Monday morning that injured 18 people and snarled traffic for hours.
The chain-reaction accident started at 8:40 a.m. in the northbound lanes of the highway, near the Greenland exit, at a spot where the road gains a couple of hundred feet of elevation and wet pavement can quickly turn to pure ice.
“Things froze up pretty quickly,” said Castle Rock Fire Chief Art Morales, who was at the scene. “There were some horrifically damaged cars. We were surprised there weren’t any fatalities.”
The highway reopened about 1:15 p.m.
The accident involved several semis, many passenger vehicles and a motor coach and truck transporting Furniture Row Racing’s cars back from the NASCAR Sprint Cup race at Phoenix International Raceway.
“Our (semi-truck) guys came over the hill and saw a group of cars that had just spun out because of the ice,” said Furniture Row team manager Joe Garone. “Our guys tried to stop, but they hit the ice too.”
He said the semi hit a couple of cars. He said the motor coach was behind the transporter and the driver made the decision to run into the back of the trailer carrying the race cars, rather than running into the passenger cars.
Garone said none of the three employees in the two vehicles had serious injuries, but the two race cars in the team’s semi likely were damaged.
“It’s not going to have a big impact on us, in terms of racing next week,” Garone said. “We’re just glad nobody was killed.”
Morales said two of the 18 people who were transported to area hospitals were in serious condition when they were taken from the scene.
In one instance, firefighters had to cut off the top of a car to get to a trapped motorist. Morales said that several cars were crushed between two semis.
Three other cars also had to be cut apart to reach victims.
“There was extreme damage to several cars,” said Larkspur Fire Chief Jamey Bumgarner. “It made us wonder how people survived.”
Howard Pankratz: 303-954-1939 or hpankratz@denverpost.com
