LAKEWOOD, Colo. — When it comes to the intersection of West Colfax Avenue and Garrison Street, business owners and Lakewood Police agree, it’s a busy road with a lot of problems.
“This intersection, like most of Colfax, sees a lot of daily traffic,” said Sgt. Ben Barefoot with the Lakewood Police traffic division. “We have all types of vehicles; in addition, we have a lot of foot traffic with the Safeway next to us and multi-family dwellings across the street.”
According to Lakewood Police, crashes along this intersection happen for several reasons but the main two are aggressive driving and speed.
“We have a traffic team that consist of four officers during the day, four officer during the afternoon and Colfax is a target of ours, not only for speed enforcement but red-light enforcement, aggressive driving, unsafe lane changes, basically all the things leading to crashes,” Barefoot said.
From June 2023 to May 31, there have 12 crashes at West Colfax Avenue and Garrison Street, near the Safeway parking lot - a total of four crashes and over the last 10 years, three have been fatal crashes.
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“Frequently the traffic calming measures that we go after, focus on cars but one of the things that we see a lot along Colfax, including this intersection, is pedestrian not crossing at the intersection, so they don’t have the protection of that sidewalk,” Barefoot said.
The latest fatal crash happened last week, a woman was killed and two other people were injured.
Security video obtained by 9NEWS showed a small white car enter the intersection where it was then struck by a truck. That vehicle continued toward the parking lot.
The exact circumstances of the crash are unknown at this time.
Lakewood police plans to work with traffic engineers to alter the timing of the traffic light, to force drivers to slow down.
“We need help from the public," Barefoot said. "At the end of the day, nothing is so important to get to on time that it results in someone losing a life."
The city also applied for funding to improve pedestrian safety plus explore various methods to enhance safety along this corridor.
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