An Aurora city leader is calling for road repairs after a teenage girl was killed in a crash over the weekend. The deadly crash involving five teenagers in a stolen SUV shut down I-225 northbound at the Alameda exit on Saturday morning.
In a letter to families, APS Superintendent Michael Giles, Jr. said the 15-year-old who was killed was a ninth grade student at Aurora Central High School. Another Aurora Central High student was in the car but was not seriously hurt. A William Smith High School student was also injured.
Giles says there were two additional teens in the car who were not APS students. One of those juveniles was the driver.
APD says the driver is a 17-year-old boy who did not have a driver’s license. He was transported to the hospital with serious injuries. APD does not have an update on his condition.
APD says there were opened and unopened alcohol containers in the vehicle.
Traffic investigators are still reconstructing the scene and do not yet have a speed to share, but excessive speed is suspected. Excessive speed has been the cause of numerous wrecks on that stretch of the interstate.
According to police, the area of northbound Interstate 225 that passes over Second Avenue has had seven fatal wrecks in the past nine months. Four of the victims were teenagers.
Councilman Steve Sundberg, who is the vice chairman of Aurora’s Public Safety Committee, says the city asked the Colorado Department of Transportation to address an irregularity in the road.
“It comes at an angle. You’re turning slightly as you hit the bump and at an excessive rate of speed, it will pick your car up and people are losing control,” said Sundberg. “You can see the scrapes and the rubber on the concrete on the side of the road.”
After bringing it to the attention of CDOT, Sundberg says signs were installed to warn drivers of the uneven pavement. The orange signs are on both shoulders of the interstate and read “damaged road” with a 55 mph speed limit.
The city traffic department called attention to the problem in July 2023.
“I think they’ve grinded it down to alleviate some of the bumps in the road. But it’s more of an engineering fix that’s going to take some time and money,” said Sundberg. “We’ve seen some speed intervention with motorcycle cops and so forth, but a real road fix is what we need and CDOT is moving at a glacial pace.”
CDOT was not available for comment to discuss plans for that stretch of I-225.
Investigators in the weekend crash are in close contact with the district attorney’s office for any applicable charges, but APD says there is no timeline on this yet.
Aurora Central High School will have counselors available for students throughout the week.
