One Dead, At Least 30 Injured After Multiple Crashes on I-25 in Denver

At least one person was killed and 30 others were injured after a series of pileups involving more than 100 vehicles on Interstate 25 in Denver Saturday.

A burst of snow sparked crashes along a two mile stretch of Interstate 25, which involved 104 vehicles and shut down the northbound section of the interstate for several hours Saturday. The interstate has since reopened. 

Icy conditions were likely to blame, as Winter Storm Titan rolled through Denver this morning, said weather.com meteorologist Jonathan Erdman.

Freezing fog coated the roads in a thin sheath of ice, which was followed by one to three inches of snow that fell in under two hours. "As with a couple of multi-vehicle pileups earlier in the winter, you don't need a major snowstorm," said Erdman. "Sometimes quick bursts of snow are all it takes."

(FORECAST: Winter Storm Titan)

The injured were taken to nearby hospitals. Denver Health Chief Paramedic Scott Bookman said the injured taken to hospitals included both adults and children.

Drivers and passengers who were not hurt were put on a city bus to speak with accident investigators, and some wrecked cars were towed to a nearby high school, the Denver Post reported. Meanwhile, about 100 snowplows and four large tankers with deicing fluid were busy clearing roads throughout Denver, according to the Colorado Department of Transportation.

Many on scene reported poor driving conditions around the time of the wrecks. One victim, Eric Lupher told 7NEWS that "everybody was driving normal speed and then all of a sudden there was a wall of red and everybody started spinning." 

Meanwhile, the Colorado Transportation Department closed the westbound lanes of a section of Interstate 70 west of Denver after treacherous road conditions triggered numerous accidents. Officials say traffic is still slow in the reopened lanes.

The transportation department warned that recently fluctuating temperatures in Colorado led to the slick road conditions, and authorities advised motorists to stock their vehicles with water, blankets, windshield wiper fluid, hand warmers and nonperishable food items.