Both lanes of I-70 eastbound reopen after extended closure for semi crash
Colorado State Patrol/Courtesy photo
An early-morning Friday crash on Interstate 70 between two oncoming semi-trucks sent two to the hospital with serious bodily injuries and shuttered the interstate’s eastbound lanes for more than seven hours.
The accident — which occurred around 4:30 in the morning — snarled traffic in Eagle County for most of Friday, with drivers being redirected onto Highway 6.
The left eastbound lane of I-70 reopened just before 11 a.m. and the right lane reopened around 1:30 p.m.
A semi traveling westbound came into the eastbound lanes, causing the crash.
Trooper Sherri Mendez said fatigue is suspected in the crash, and that witness reports in the preliminary investigation indicate that the westbound truck was driving erratically near Silverthorne.
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The driver and passenger in the eastbound truck were both transported to a local hospital. There is no reported injury of the westbound driver.
Neither truck was carrying hazardous material, Mendez said, but the crash scattered a substantial amount of debris that crews spent hours cleaning off the highway.
Another big crash
Friday’s accident comes on the heels of a semi-truck crash in Glenwood Canyon on Tuesday that shut down the interstate in both directions for hours.
The Tuesday accident, which occurred around 9:30 a.m., happened approximately 6 miles east of Glenwood Springs near mile marker 122.
According to Colorado Department of Transportation Regional Communications Manager Lisa Schwantes, the truck was traveling westbound carrying plastic crates and wood pallets when it crashed through the guardrail, damaging about 200 feet of guardrail, and landed on the eastbound lanes about 25 feet below.
Westbound lanes reopened after about two hours, while eastbound lanes were closed for more than six hours, causing a traffic backup of about 4 miles, according to Schwantes.
Following that crash, the driver was taken to the hospital and issued a citation, Mendez said.
In response to the frequency of such crashes on I-70, Gov. Jared Polis signed a bill in May that restricts semi-trailers from using the left lane in high-risk areas of I-70. The areas include Glenwood Canyon, Dowd Junction, Vail Pass, Eisenhower-Johnson Memorial Tunnels, Georgetown Hill, and Floyd Hill. The law, which took effect in August, aims to reduce accidents involving large commercial vehicles in these notoriously dangerous sections of the highway.
Such wrecks still occur, but have decreased in frequency since January 2023, when the canyon was the site of six separate wrecks involving commercial vehicles.
Taylor Cramer of the Post Independent provided reporting from Glenwood Springs.
