A silver Honda Civic, tipped on its side, spills shattered glass onto the road. Behind it, a Hyundai Elantra is wedged into the rear of a Buick LeSabre, while a mangled Chevy Cavalier, sideswiped by a minivan, adds to the sense of chaos overtaking the pileup.
This was the scene Thursday in Douglas County, at a facility that officials hope will teach emergency personnel across the state how to clear crash scenes quickly and, in turn, stay alive.
“This is about working together and finding ways to make our highways more reliable and safer for our first responders,” Mike Lewis, the Colorado Department of Transportation’s executive director, said Thursday at the new facility. Also at the facility, which officials call a traffic incident management training center, were family members of Colorado State Trooper Jaimie Jursevics and Trooper Cody Donahue, both of whom died after being struck by passing vehicles during separate crash investigations 3 miles and one year apart on Interstate 25 south of Castle Rock.