THREE KILLED IN SEVEN-VEHICLE COLLISION
ARVADA» Three people were killed and another was critically injured after a seven-vehicle crash in Arvada on Sunday evening that police are investigating as a possible case of drunken driving.
“Two vehicles started a chain reaction with multiple vehicles involved,” including a three-wheel motorcycle, Arvada Police spokeswoman Jill McGranahan said.
“We suspect alcohol was involved,” she said.
Police on Sunday night had closed off Ward Road in both directions from 58th Avenue to 64th Avenue as investigators worked to reconstruct what happened.
At the scene, police were waiting for coroner’s officials to arrive as bodies remained inside cars. Damaged vehicles, including a black Ford F-150 pickup, were spread out over a block and half. The driver of the motorcycle was not among the dead, McGranahan said.
Police believe the crash happened shortly after 6 p.m. No further details on the victims were released pending notification of relatives.
Two killed in crash.
Two septuagenarian friends speed-testing a sky blue Dodge Challenger Hellcat at the Buena Vista Regional Airport were killed after rocketing off the end of a runway and sailing across a ravine, authorities said Sunday night.
The men had permission to use the runway, Chaffee County Sheriff John Spezze said. And they probably were moving faster than 100 miles per hour.
The 2016 Challenger Hellcat driven southbound down the runway by Lynd Fitzgerald, 71, of Colorado Springs, with Roger Lichtenberger, 76, of San Marcos, Calif., in the passenger seat kept moving off the runway for another 314 feet, sheriff’s investigators found.
Then it went through the air over a ravine before hitting the ground. The car bounced back into the air again, flipped end over end over a second ravine, and landed on its wheels, the investigators determined.
Chaffee County Sheriff’s deputies, Buena Vista police and Colorado State Patrol troopers raced to the scene. They found the wrecked car 650 feet beyond the south end of the runway. They tried to give the men first aid.
Both were pronounced dead at the scene.
Investigation nets cache of drugs, guns, money.
Narcotics officers have seized millions of dollars in illegal drugs along with cash and firearms. Sheriff’s spokeswoman Natalie Sosa said the drugs were recovered in Colorado Springs, but the organization was connected to groups in Denver.
The El Paso County sheriff’s office said the Metro Vice Narcotics and Intelligence Unit seized nearly 11 pounds of heroin, which authorities say has a street value of $2.4 million, and more than 38 pounds of methamphetamine, with a street value of about $6.3 million. Smaller amounts of heroin and cocaine were seized separately.