Photo: Colorado Boulevard reopened after car-taxi accident that killed one, injured five

Only hours prior to the start of the Monday morning commute, a fatal accident took place at one of Denver's busiest surface-street intersections: Colorado Boulevard and 17th Avenue. One individual involved in the crash died as a result of the collision, while five other people were taken to nearby hospitals...

By Michael Roberts

April 15, 2013

Audio By Carbonatix

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Only hours prior to the start of the Monday morning commute, a fatal accident took place at one of Denver's busiest surface-street intersections: Colorado Boulevard and 17th Avenue.

One individual involved in the crash died as a result of the collision, while five other people were taken to nearby hospitals.

Here's the first Denver Police Department tweet about the deadly incident, which reportedly took place early this morning.

TRAFFIC: Two car ax at 17th & Colorado. One victim has died and one has SBI. Intersection closed and TIB is responding.
— Denver Police Dept (@DenverPolice) April 15, 2013

By the way, SBI stands for "serious bodily injury." But according to 7News, a total of five people actually were hurt and required hospitalization.

Here's a Twitpic from the scene tweeted by 7News:

According to 7News, the taxi's driver was the person fatally injured. The station puts the time of the accident at shortly after 1 a.m. this morning, while 9News says it took place at approximately 12:45 a.m.

The intersection was impacted in both directions for hours. Moments ago, however, the Denver police tweeted this:

TRAFFIC UPDATE: NB and SB lanes of Colorado are now open.EB and WB lanes of 17th remain closed.
— Denver Police Dept (@DenverPolice) April 15, 2013

We'll update this post when more information becomes available. In the meantime, here's a report from 7News:

Michael Roberts began his career with Westword in 1990 as music editor. In 1999, he took on a new role, full-time media reporter, as author of a column called The Message. In 2008, he became the lead writer for Westword's news blog, The Latest Word, a position he held until January 2023. Michael continues to freelance for Westword, covering everything from business to sports and the media; he also contributes to Jazziz, a national music magazine. He holds a bachelor's degree from what is now Colorado Mesa University and master's degrees from the University of California, Los Angeles, and Northwestern University.

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