DENVER — Colorado State Patrol is sounding the alarm after four of its patrol vehicles were hit while assisting other drivers over a snowy President’s Day weekend – typically one of the busiest in Colorado’s high country.
The agency publicly urged drivers to slow down and move over after the string of incidents during a weekend that saw wintry weather and slick roads snarl already-busy traffic with crashes and slowdowns. In four of those crashes – one Friday, one Saturday and two on Sunday – CSP vehicles were hit in so-called secondary crashes.
None of the troopers were injured. Here’s a quick look at the incidents:
- Around 7:15 p.m. Friday, a vehicle that was being pulled over on Interstate 25 near Colorado Springs for driving without headlights hit a guardrail and spun back into the roadway, hitting the CSP patrol car. That driver was taken to the hospital with injuries and arrested for DUI. The trooper was not injured.
- Just after 9 a.m. Saturday, a CSP patrol car blocking a lane of Interstate 70 as part of the response to a separate crash near New Castle was hit by another car. Neither the driver nor the trooper were injured.
- Around 1:30 a.m. Sunday, a semi truck hit the side of a patrol car that was stopped with its lights on while helping another driver. The trooper was outside of the car setting out traffic cones. No injuries were reported.
- Less than six hours later, a driver that was rear-ended would then hit a CSP vehicle on northbound I-25 as the trooper was setting up a safety closure for low visibility and slick roads.
Denver7 investigator and anchor Jaclyn Allen wanted to follow up with CSP and got on the phone with Trooper Sherri Mendez to hear her message after the crashes.
She said CSP may sometimes see a few such crashes in a month, but that four in a weekend is abnormally high.
“Just don't let winter winter weather fool you into thinking that, just because you have four-wheel drive, that you can drive normal speed,” Mendez said. “You have to slow down, obviously, because there are some slick spots that people may not see, and you can get in a crash just like that.”
In a separate incident, a driver who got out of his car on US 36 in Boulder was killed after two cars hit him. The cause of that crash was not immediately known.
Mendez reminded motorists of the state’s Move Over law, which initially aimed to protect police and emergency responders and was expanded in 2023 to include all drivers on the side of a Colorado highway. Anyone who sees a stationary or disabled vehicle with its hazards on along the side of a highway must move over, or slow down to 20 mph below the speed limit when moving over is not safely possible.
The law was expanded after what authorities said was the deadliest year on Colorado roads in more than three decades in 2022.
“We just want the public to know that we're out here working the roadways, and we, too, want to return home to our families safe and sound,” Mendez said.
She said each of the crashes involving CSP troopers over the weekend were related to drivers going too fast in bad weather. A high country towing specialist Denver7 spoke with over the weekend said one simple change to driving habits will help bring down the number of crashes.
“The motoring public's perception of space between people has gotten way too small,” said Charlie Stubblefield, the owner of Mountain Recovery. “If we stayed back from one another and we kept gaps so that we could react to what's happening in front of us, we'd be a lot better off.”
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