Multiple people are dead and several are injured in Colorado after a massive highway crash in Colorado invoicing at least 15 cars and semi trucks.
Officials did not yet specify the number of people killed, but said that there were “multiple fatalities” in the Thursday crash and subsequent fire on Interstate 70 in Lakewood, Colorado, about 8 miles west of Denver, according to CBS News.
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The major interstate was closed Friday morning as police investigated the crash.
A firefighter was among the people taken to a hospital when debris, which may have been a tire, exploded. A spokesperson for the Lakewood Police Department said at a Thursday evening news conference that about 12 people were treated for injuries in area hospitals.
One man caught video of the semi-truck allegedly responsible for the crash screaming past his car on the shoulder of Interstate 70. The truck driver was reportedly among those injured, CBS News reports.
A witness said the resulting collisions caused numerous explosions. CBS Denver reported that 12 vehicles and three semis were involved in the pileup.
“The back of my truck lifted up and shoved me forward, and I was hitting other cars,” Brian Dickey, who was caught up in the accident, told KMGH. “When I came to a stop I look in my rearview mirror and all I saw was a bunch of flames. And I jumped out of the vehicle as fast as I could. There was so much fire at the time that I couldn’t even really approach any of the other vehicles to see if there was any other survivors or what.”
State officials were expected to give an update on the investigation and highway conditions at about 7 a.m. local time.
“I-70 eastbound traffic was at a standstill or close to a standstill because of a crash way up ahead. … The semi was eastbound and ended up colliding with the stopped cars,” Lakewood Police Department agent Ty Countryman said Thursday night, ABC News reports. “We’re almost four or five hours into this and our crash investigation has really yet to begin — given the magnitude of the size of this crash.”
Police said the fire took hours to subside.
“This is looking to be one of the worst accidents we’ve had here in Lakewood,” Countryman said.
No charges had been filed against any of the drivers as of late Thursday evening.
