MattGush/iStock(LAKEWOOD, Colo.) — A semi driver is facing homicide charges Friday after multiple people were killed in a fiery crash involving 28 vehicles on a Colorado highway.
Officials did not specify the number of people killed, but said multiple died Thursday on Interstate 70 in Lakewood, about 8 miles west of Denver.
Six people were taken to hospitals in unknown conditions, officials said Friday.
There is no indication this was an intentional act, officials said.
The accident occurred Thursday about 4:30 p.m. when a semitrailer traveling at a high rate of speed slammed into several stopped cars during a traffic jam, police said.
Four semis and 24 cars were involved in the crash, officials said Friday.
Joshua McCutchen told ABC News’ Good Morning America he noticed a semi barreling down the emergency lane before he saw fire, smoke and explosions.
“I’ve never seen that many cars and that much destruction and fire,” he said. “It was just complete chaos.”
The driver of one of the semis is being charged with multiple counts of vehicular homicide.
The driver, who has not been identified, was not seriously injured, officials said.
There’s no evidence of drugs or alcohol, officials said.
Lakewood Police Department agent Ty Countryman said the accident could end up being one of the worst in the city’s history.
“It is true carnage there as far as the debris, what’s left of cars and trucks, along with the cargoes that were in the semis,” Countryman said.
Brian Dickey, who was caught up in the accident, told Denver ABC affiliate KMGH-TV that the back of his truck “lifted up and shoved me forward.”
“I was hitting other cars. When I came to a stop, I look in my rear view mirror and all I saw was a bunch of flames” he said. “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.”
McCutchen said he saw a man, who had been holding a cardboard sign, asking for money, rush to the scene and pull people out of the fiery wreckage.
“He’s definitely a hero — he saved four people’s lives,” McCutchen said.
Investigators say they are looking at social video from the scene that captured footage of a semi speeding past stopped cars just seconds before the collision.
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