Golden Police Officer Used Fire Extinguisher To Help Burning Victims After Fatal 6th Avenue Crash Caused By Speeding Driver
DENVER (CBS4) - One person is dead and four others are hurt after a two-car crash at a 6th Avenue intersection early Friday morning. One of the two cars that was involved was spotted speeding excessively by a Golden police officer moments beforehand. That officer was in the process of attempting to pull the car over when the crash happened.
Officials with the City of Golden sent out a news release in the afternoon saying that a silver Chevrolet Malibu was spotted by the officer at 4:53 a.m. going down 6th at 90 to 100 mph. The speed limit there is 45 mph.
Golden officials said the officer "attempted to catch up to the vehicle and activated his emergency lights to try to initiate a traffic stop. The silver Chevrolet Malibu continued into the intersection of West 6th Avenue and West Colfax Avenue, running a red light, and striking an SUV."
After the collision, the SUV burst into flames and two of the people who were inside caught fire as well. The officer immediately jumped in to help and used a fire extinguisher to first get the flames off the two people and then pull them from the vehicle and to safety.
Another person in the Malibu got out without catching fire, but suffered different injuries.
There were two people in the speeding car. One died from their injuries and the other was hurt.
The four people hurt were all taken to the hospital. None of their names have been released, and the name of the person who died has also not been released. It's not clear if the deceased was the person driving the car.
6th Avenue was shut down in both directions after the crash for the investigation.
Crash investigators were looking at DUI as a cause, according to the Colorado State Patrol.