20- to 30-car pileup among numerous crashes

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DENVER - Driving conditions were treacherous across the Front Range on Saturday as numerous crashes were reported, including a 20- to 30- car pileup which forced the temporary closure of a major interstate.

The Colorado Springs Police Department says the multi-car crash happened around 6:15 a.m. at milepost 140, South Nevada Street, forcing a temporary closure of southbound Interstate 25.

Police say between 20 and 30 cars were piled up on the bridges over S. Nevada and S. Tejon Streets. The southbound lanes of I-25 were blocked at milepost 140, and a detour was put in place. It was cleaned up and reopened around 9:30 a.m.

"If you can stay home this morning, that's your best bet," Mike Murray, a spokesman for the Colorado Department of Transportation, said.

Jonas Olmsted says it took him about an hour to drive from his home in Castle Rock Saturday morning to Stapleton for a cancer charity event.

"It was pitch black and there was black ice and water over the black ice," Olmsted said.

Most places in the Denver area were experiencing freezing drizzle on Saturday morning, which was turning to ice on roadways as it made contact, making for slick roads and highly dangerous driving conditions. Extreme caution was advised as several crashes were reported on Saturday.

"I went through nine - that I could count - spin out accidents, with either ambulances or police," Olmsted said.

Interstates 25 and 70 were particularly bad on Saturday morning, especially on bridges and ramps. The bitter cold was not only freezing ice on the roadways, but on windshields as well.

"People are going 50, 60, 70, when they should've been going 20, 25, 30," Olmsted said.

The cities of Denver and Thornton were placed on accident alert, but those alerts were both lifted before 12:30 p.m.

"Most of the signs said, 'Go slow, ice on road.' The ones that paid attention got here in one piece, the others were on their sides and upside down, and all over the place," said Olmsted.

Karen Magnani found a treacherous commute during her drive to the K-9 For Cancer fundraising walk Saturday morning.

"It was horrible. I left at 5:30 and I finally got off I-70 at 7 o'clock at Federal, because it was just bumper-to-bumper and slick as could be, it was awful," Magnani said.

Magnani says the icy road conditions came before she had time to prepare her vehicle.

"Spinouts, accidents, and I don't have my snow tires on yet, so I was a nervous wreck," said Karen Magnani.

Murray with CDOT added: "It's just a good reminder that the first snow of the year, we're just not used to driving in these kinds of conditions."