LAKEWOOD - In neighborhoods across the Front Range, roads are still covered with patches of thick ice and a lot of snow. Those icy roads contributed to a tragic accident in Lakewood where three young girls were hit by a car when the driver could not stop.
"Every time I go from my apartment to my car I relive the whole thing because I am walking past the glass, and the spray paint, and see this car," Julie Palmer said.
Palmer's daughter was 25 feet from her front door when she and two friends were hit by a car that lost control on the ice.
"I thought it was like a dream at first," 12-year-old Madison Palmer said.
"From my kitchen window, my husband and I witnessed it," Danielle Stone, whose daughter was injured in the accident, said. "It was horrible - it really was," she said.
The whole street where the accident happened was covered with thick ice. The driver hit his breaks, slid, jumped the curb and went racing right toward the part of the sidewalk where the three girls were standing.
"It was airborn - straight for our kids," Stone said.
"I saw the car coming so I turned around and started running," Madison said.
Madison's friend Genesis Pluss didn't have that chance.
"She flew and she hit this one car. Then she hit the car next to it and fell between the two cars. So I laid down next to her and held her hand," Madison said.
Gensis' injuries were so critical, a medical helicopter took her to Children's Hospital.
"It was really traumatic," Palmer said.
The accident happened on West Nevada Drive in Golden, near Simms and Alameda.
The police haven't finished their investigation. They think maybe the the driver didn't know the street dead ends and had to stop suddenly. There is no sign warning of a dead end.
They're still picking up pieces from the scene. They just found Genesis' glasses.
"Are they broken?" Palmer asked. "Wow, they just flew off her face and we couldn't find them."
Everywhere they look, what is left from the moment, they can't stop thinking about Genesis.
"We are all praying and hoping that she'll be fine," 13-year-old Saborah Shabazz, a friend, said.
Genesis goes to Green Mountain Elementary School. The school has started a fund to help her. She is one of three sisters who lives with a single dad with disabilities.
Her neighbors and friends have organized some bands who would like to play a benefit concert but they are looking for a venue to donate the space.
The families we talked to are asking drivers to be careful with more snow coming tonight, there will be more snow and ice on neighborhood streets.
(Copyright 2012 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)