Survivors of fatal 6th Ave. crash doing “OK”, police say

A Denver man died and two people were injured on 6th Ave. early Saturday

LAKEWOOD – Two people hospitalized in a weekend car accident that killed a Denver man are “doing OK” and no charges will be filed in the case, Lakewood Police said Monday.

LPD spokesman Ty Countryman said traffic investigators told him the two as-yet unidentified survivors are holding their own at a metro-area hospital, but had no word on their official condition.

Countryman also said investigators will file no charges in the case because the man who died in the crash, 63-year-old Irvin Rodriquez, “was at fault in the accident.”

Rodriquez, a Denver resident, died when the sports utility vehicle he was driving slammed into the rear of a Chevy Silverado pickup occupied by the two injured victims early Saturday on West 6th Avenue at Estes Street, just east of Garrison Street.

Witnesses and police said the two injured occupants of the pickup truck apparently were having trouble with their vehicle and were coasting toward the center median about 7:25 a.m. when the SUV crashed into the pickup, sending both westbound vehicles careening across the highway.

“They were right behind me, I saw it in my (rearview) mirror,” said a witness at the scene who did not give her name. “It was horrible.”

The witness said she passed the pickup as it slowed and saw it was apparently headed for the center median across the left lane.

“I don’t think he (Rodriquez) even saw they were stopping” before he slammed into the rear of the pickup, she said.

Countryman confirmed that part of the account.

“Rodriquez failed to react to the disabled vehicle and collided with it,” Countryman said Saturday.

The accident closed westbound lanes of W. 6th Avenue for about three hours.

Paramedics pronounced Rodriquez dead at the scene.