The 285 "Deathway"

I just got a call from Kevin that he can't get home because Hwy. 285 is shut down because of an accident...again. The other day I saw a bumper sticker, it said "Pray for me, I drive 285". The sad thing is, it's so true. Hwy. 285 is the main road that goes from Conifer to Denver (a road we never traveled on before purchasing our house since we came down through Evergreen to look at it). It is probably one of the scariest roads I have ever seen, the worst part about it is the way people drive! It is extremely twisty and steep and currently under construction so traffic often has to come to a complete halt. The sides of the road are literally covered with crosses. I can't tell you how many times we have seen or heard about accidents where 18-wheelers lose their brakes while coming down the hill and go out of control. A week after we moved in, one hit the B&B across the street from our subdivision and it exploded! Last week one overturned and spilled 40,000lbs of pinto beans all over the highway - ok so that one was kind of funny because no one actually got hurt. Usually the outcome of accidents on 285 is not so humorous though. A couple of weekends ago we were driving to Denver and passed an accident right after it happened, the cops weren't even there yet, I didn't need to watch the news to know that the drivers of both vehicles didn't survive. They were both small cars and neither of them had a recognizable front end, they both looked like half cars. The craziest thing is the way people drive on 285, seriously you'd think it was a race track. I'll be crusing along going the speed limit and without fail someone will get RIGHT up on my butt and tailgate me so bad I can't even see their front lights. It's ridiculous! In addition to being a very dangerous road, you have these insane drivers who think it's ok to go 80 around a hairpin turn with a steep drop off the edge of the road. No wonder there are so many accidents. We've seen more than a few in the short time we've lived here and heard about dozens more on the news. I've never seen or heard of a more dangerous stretch of road. Everytime I see one of these accidents, my heart goes into my throat and I start having horrible flash backs and memories of our accident. I'm starting to wonder if it was a mistake to move up here, this was something I definitely didn't think about when buying the house. It's so sad because I absolutely LOVE it here, the weather, the scenery, even the people are all incredible. I just absolutely hate driving down 285. Hopefully once they are done with all this construction, it will be a lot better. But for now, like the bumper sticker says... pray for us - we drive 285.