Brighton police are trying to figure out how the body of a woman who was about 50 years old ended up on the shoulder of Interstate 76 early Friday morning.
One possibility is that she walked away from a car crash and collapsed beside the road and died; the other is that after her first accident a half mile away, another driver slammed into her as she was walking on the highway’s shoulder, said John Bradley, Brighton police spokesman.
The woman, who died of severe injuries, had apparently been involved in a crash around 4 a.m. and was seen walking beside I-76 by a passersby, Bradley said.
The mostly likely scenario is that the woman walked away from the first accident and was struck by a second car near 136th Avenue by a hit-and-run driver.
The severity of her injuries is the biggest clue, Bradley said. Brighton police believe it is unlikely she would have been able to walk a half mile after sustaining the injuries she did by the time her body was found.
It appears that the woman first crashed into a ditch and her vehicle struck a sign post. She then began walking north along the highway.
Two drivers called police to report the woman was walking along I-76. The first call came in at 4:26 a.m. The second at 4:54 a.m. But when Brighton police drove to the area they could not find the woman, Bradley said.
