Vail to draft emergency ordinance increasing penalties, enforcement at I-70 chain-up station
Courtesy image
Vail Mayor Travis Coggin, on Tuesday, disclosed in public an agreement that the Town Council had reached in private — an emergency ordinance will be drawn up in time for the next council meeting regarding enforcement on Vail Pass.
“The status quo is unacceptable,” Coggin said.
The current situation, as referenced in a letter sent Feb. 10 to the state of Colorado from the town of Vail, is one in which “continued non-compliance with safety laws on I-70 by commercial vehicle drivers” is causing frequent “closures and accidents on Vail Pass during heavy snows due to trucks losing traction and not using chains.”
The town asked Colorado Gov. Jared Polis for strict enforcement of traction laws, speed limits, the mandatory use of right lanes, and for chain stop improvement in East Vail.
“Violations should be met with significant penalties to ensure compliance,” the town’s letter states. “The current penalties are not changing the behavior of the trucking industry. The penalty for a closure needs to be more commensurate with the financial impact it causes. The Town is prepared to work with the state to enhance enforcement recognizing that the Colorado State Patrol in our region is less than 50% staffed.”
Support Local Journalism
But the town, after issuing that on Feb. 4, has been “underwhelmed by the response we got,” Coggin said on Tuesday.
As a result, “we’re announcing a more aggressive I-70 and Vail Pass trucker enforcement policy,” Coggin said. “Our department is going to start allocating significantly more resources to the chain up and chain down areas to ensure compliance with our state laws.”
The council directed the town attorney to draft an emergency ordinance which will increase the penalties for violations of chain laws, and will also include language allowing the town to tow vehicles over Vail Pass at the violator’s expense.
“The penalty will be the maximum allowable per the jurisdiction of the municipal court,” Coggin said. “We’ll also be directing trucks off of I-70 and turning them around so they’re going back westbound.”
The town, in its letter, wrote that commercial vehicle drivers’ failure to comply with safety laws has put the town’s emergency responders in harm’s way in adverse conditions and “also impacts our ability to respond to emergencies in the town of Vail.”
“While we appreciate the recent update to existing chain laws, the State of Colorado’s current penalties are clearly still an inadequate deterrent for those who will ignore speed limits, lane restrictions and chain-up requirements and put others at risk for the sake of saving a few minutes on the road,” the letter states. “In addition, the $1,150 maximum fine for blocking a roadway is exceedingly low, considering the state’s own analysis indicating an economic cost of nearly $2 million for every hour I-70 is closed.”
The town estimates that in 2024, the cumulative economic impact of I-70 closures exceeded $300 million in Colorado. That’s based on information from the Colorado Department of Transportation, which recorded 99 full closures on I-70 across the state, lasting a total of 161 hours.
And this season has likely been worse. The Vail Pass closure season started in early November with a 10-hour long shutdown, and within 24 hours of Coggin’s announcement on Tuesday, a series of closures had beset the pass, starting at about 8:30 p.m. the evening before and continuing to about 4 a.m. Tuesday.
“This is something that we take very seriously; it’s a significant safety issue, and the status quo is unacceptable,” Coggin said. “So, look forward to significantly more enforcement and we’ll see that ordinance on the 18th.”
