Colorado & Denver News

by Andrea Lopez
FRISCO, Colo. (CBS4) ― During the last ski season, accidents closed portions Interstate 70 for nearly 163 hours. That included one or two lane closures. The mountain corridor is a challenging drive with its steep grades, winding curves, wildlife, and often intimidating tunnels. Complicating weather events can happen along that stretch of road during most months of the year.

The Frisco office of Colorado State Patrol Troop 6B covers Clear Creek and Summit Counties. Troopers there say that many of the accidents they see can be prevented.

"Frankly the problems that we encounter in the motor vehicle accidents have to do with impatient drivers driving beyond their ability to operate the vehicle, and beyond the vehicle's ability to navigate those roadways," said Captain Ron Prater. "As far as the number one mechanism for the cause of accidents it's driving too fast for conditions."

There are two notorious spots for accidents that troopers see along the mountain corridor. The first is a five mile section (mile markers 216 to 221) in the eastbound lanes just east of the Eisenhower Tunnel. That stretch includes the on-ramp where ski traffic from Loveland Ski Area merges onto the interstate.

"That's a tricky stretch of road you have, especially in the winter time when the bridges ice up. You have a downgrade," said Prater. "Then you have the skier traffic; that's an area where the traffic tends to back up as well so you do have some rear end accidents. There are more accidents there per mile than in the rest of our troop."

The second notorious spot is Officer's Gulch between Copper Mountain and Frisco.

"People come down off Vail Pass and they think they've finished their decent and there's still downgrade in that area," said Prater. "There are a lot of curves and some shading of the roadway."

Prater said they also see many accidents involving trucks in the Hidden Valley area east of Idaho Springs near the Twin Tunnels where there are sharp curves. Trucks commonly tip over there.

"Other areas would be Fall River there at the 237, especially eastbound there's a very sharp right hand curve," said Prater. "If there's any ice or snow drivers kind of get caught by surprise at that sharp right hand curve."

But no matter the area, Prater said that the cause of the accidents is usually the same, and it's usually the drivers' faults.

"We investigate thousands of accidents and we have a lot of experience doing this and so there's a large database that grows throughout the years," he said. "We find that overwhelmingly it's driver error and overwhelmingly that driver error is going too fast. You really do control your own destiny by driving defensively and slowing down.

In addition to that if a person would wear a seatbelt they could mitigate their injuries.

"We had two doctoral students do some research," Prater said. "They took our data for one year, studied it, and applied some science to it. One thing we found is that if you're not wearing a seatbelt you're four and a half times more likely to be more seriously injured than if you are wearing a seatbelt."

State Troopers try to educate drivers when they can, but their resources are spread thin. Prater said it's not uncommon to average one trooper per shift per county. Often they barely have the time to respond to all of their calls, let alone educate drivers on safety tips for the corridor.

"I feel our resources are stretched beyond the breaking point," said Prater. "We're overwhelmed by the calls for service and can't keep up with the demands for service and the expectations that the motoring public has of the level of service that we're going to provide them."

As state officials anticipate traffic numbers will only increase in the future, emergency responders are asking for additional help. For the mountain-based state troopers, that call was heard. Eight additional troopers will be working Summit and Clear Creek Counties by the spring of 2008, which should double the average number of troopers per shift per county.

"In my opinion we have a real challenge with the amount of state patrol up in the high country," said State Rep. Dan Gibbs (District 56). "I recently sent a letter to Gov. Bill Ritter asking that we have additional state patrol for the high country.

"We have wrecks in the summer time just like in the winter time and it places a terrible burden on law enforcement if we don't have adequate folks up here to maintain the laws that are in place. We've had an additional amount in the past ten to 20 years up in the high country and I think with additional traffic it's necessary to make sure we have additional state patrol to oversee this additional traffic."

But until those additional troopers arrive and help out, the state patrol is trying to get out an important message to drivers who frequent the I-70 corridor.

"Ultimately our task as state troopers patrolling the highway, our task is to change driving behavior, to influence drivers to drive safely and to create an environment or a sense of community on the interstate--a climate of compliance where people enjoy the drive and they don't feel they're being assaulted by other motorists that have no respect for the law or sense of courtesy for fellow motorists," said Prater.

He also said he'd like to remind drivers that they can encounter snow during most months of the year, and that the climate in the mountains can be radically different from that on the Front Range.

"Conditions are constantly changing and you just need to plan a little extra time and you need to make sure your equipment is in good order," said Prater. "Have a full tank of gas, have tires with good tread, make sure that your vehicle is prepared for mountain driving and for winter driving because the winters are a little longer here than down on the front range.

"Ultimately your destiny is really in your own hands. It's not in CDOT's, it's not in ours."

Additional Resources

• For more information, read Denver Regional Council of Governments 2006 Denver Area Congestion Report.
  

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