Aurora’s councilmembers are pressing for action from the Colorado Department of Transportation following the deaths of seven people in car crashes in one spot on I-225 in the past nine months. 

City officials said a bump on the highway caused four cars alleged to be travelling excessively fast to lose control and roll off the interstate.

The deaths included four teenagers, officials said. 

On Monday night, the city council unanimously approved a resolution calling on the state transportation agency to fix the bump.

Councilmember Steve Sundberg, who authored the resolution, said he’s been driving that stretch of road “for years” and has noticed the irregularity, noting the area around it is scraped up and littered with debris from crashed vehicles.

While Sundberg acknowledged that speeding and a lack of seatbelts might contributed to the crashes and deaths, he said the bump is also a significant factor.

He said the state transportation agency is conducting a study on the area this summer and plans to issue a contract to get it fixed next year. Sundberg urged transportation officials to fix the issue quicker.

“First, we implore the public to drive safely, but we implore CDOT to shift gears and put the pedal to the metal and get this project fixed because people are dying and it’s teenagers who are the majority of the deaths,” Sundberg said.

The bump is located on I-225 northbound, near East 2nd Avenue and Alameda Avenue, just east of Aurora Hills Golf Course and west of Aurora Municipal Center.

A recent crash there took the life of 15-year-old Chan Titi, a passenger in the car that had been stolen and was being driven at the time by a 17-year-old without a license, according to Denver Gazette news partner 9News.

Just last year, two fatal crashes also involving excessive speed at the spot happened on the same day in July, killing a total of five people within 24 hours, officials said. 

Councilmember Alison Coombs echoed Sundberg, saying transportation officials “owe it to everyone in the community to provide safety” and do everything they can to stop deaths and injuries on the road.

Councilmember Francoise Bergan also emphasized the importance of wearing seatbelts, saying that, in several of the crashes, people were ejected from the vehicle. 

In the March incident, both fatal crashes at the spot on July 16, 2023 involved excessive speed over the bump in the interstate and ejection of the occupants, according to police reports. 

The first crash happened at 3:30 a.m., when a car driving about 115 mph lost control on the bump, hit the median and ejected two of the three people inside, according to council documents.

The 35-year-old driver and a 30-year-old passenger both died in the crash. A third person, a 34-year-old woman, survived with a broken neck and other injuries. 

The same day just after 11 p.m., two 18-year-olds and three 19-year-olds were traveling in a car that bottomed out in the dip, ran off the left side of the road, flipped several times and ejected four of the teens, according to council documents.

None of them wore seatbelts, and the car was going between 95 and 105 mph at the time of the crash, the documents said.

Earlier that year, in late April, a crash at the spot killed a 21-year-old man and injured a 21-year old woman when their car, which was going between 107 and 110 mph, hit the bump and rolled. 

Laura Perry, the city’s deputy city manager, has been in conversation with Colorado Department of Transportation over the last week about the issue.

The state agency responded by saying that it takes “all crashes and fatalities seriously” and “saddened by this recent incident involving young Coloradans.”

The state agency assesses crash data to understand where work needs to be done and prioritize their projects based on need, the agency said. It also works with law enforcement to address excessive speeding, careless driving and other driver behaviors that cause crashes, the agency said. 

“Regarding I-225, a design project is underway to enhance the safety of the bridges at 2nd and 6th avenues,” the state agency said. “These structures are safe to drive on as long as safe driving practices are followed which we encourage all drivers to follow.”