One person died and a woman and baby were critically injured Monday in a head-on collision along Interstate 70 after a vehicle was driven onto the freeway in the wrong direction from a roundabout at the 24 Road interchange.
Around 1:20 p.m., a Dodge Caravan minivan drove onto an exit ramp at the interchange and headed west in the eastbound lanes of I-70. The minivan went three quarters of a mile before colliding with a Chevrolet Monte Carlo, according to T.J. Rix, an officer with the Grand Junction Police Department.
The collision left the two vehicles with their front ends unrecognizable. Rix said they were traveling at least 60 mph.
Rix said the unidentified driver of the car was pronounced dead at the scene.
The woman driving the minivan and a baby inside the Monte Carlo were transported to St. Mary’s Hospital with “substantial” injuries, he said.
Rix said it is not uncommon for drivers to turn the wrong way on city streets, but he could not recall a fatal accident occurring when someone drove the wrong way in a roundabout and down an exit ramp.
He declined to identify the dead driver or the other two crash victims.
The accident halted traffic on eastbound I-70 for most of the afternoon, forcing police to reroute the traffic through the city on U.S. Highway 6&50. Westbound traffic continued past the accident scene in one lane.
Sam Rainguet, spokeswoman for the city of Grand Junction, said there have only been five accidents in the vicinity of the 24 Road double roundabout, which the Colorado Department of Transportation completed in August 2006.
None of the accidents, she said, involved fatalities or people driving in the wrong direction.
A double roundabout similar to that at the 24 Road interchange is planned for the I-70 interchange in Fruita.
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E-mail Mike Saccone at msaccone@gjds.com.
