1 killed, 3 injured after multiple auto-pedestrian crashes in downtown Denver

DENVER (KDVR) — Denver police are responding to two auto-pedestrian crashes in downtown Denver in which four people were taken to the hospital. One of those people has died.

The crashes were reported blocks from each other about 20 minutes apart, and one crash involved a bus, according to the Denver Police Department. The agency said the crashes were not related to each other.

The first crash happened about 10:15 a.m. near Park Avenue and Lawrence Street. A vehicle hit a person, and the driver and passenger of the vehicle and the person hit were all taken to a hospital, a Denver police spokesperson said.

FOX31’s Kasia Kerridge at the scene noted the vehicle had jumped the curb just outside the Denver Rescue Mission. A resident of the mission who witnessed the crash called it “brutal.”

“I was waiting in there to check my bed and the whole building shook, and I heard the bang,” Ronald Taverna said in an interview. “I’ve seen a lot of stuff at this place. I’ve been here for a while, but that was — that was brutal.”

The police spokesperson had said one person’s injuries were critical. DPD at 11:50 a.m. on X said this crash is now being investigated as fatal, and a police spokesperson on Sunday afternoon confirmed the pedestrian in this crash died.

The spokesperson said the driver was in “critical but stable” condition, and the passenger has minor injuries.

The second crash happened just after 10:40 a.m. at 21st and Lawrence streets.

A bus hit a person, who was taken to a hospital with what a police spokesperson said was not serious injuries. The bus was a privately chartered bus from CST used for cold-weather shelters, a company supervisor told FOX31.

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The bus driver, who provided dashboard camera footage to FOX31, said in 22 years of being a bus driver, this has never happened to him.

“I was just on my way to the Lawrence Street Community Center with a bus load of people and there was a pedestrian, probably 20 feet from the bus stop, and he just stepped right out in front, and I couldn’t stop in time,” Tony Dassinger said. “They just said he’s going to be okay.”