Two semi-trucks and a livestock trailer were snarled in a multi-car pileup that closed westbound I-70 near Empire Junction this morning.
Colorado State Patrol confirms 11 vehicles were caught in the snag around 10:15 a.m. Earlier reports said eight vehicles. Two people were hospitalized with non-life-threatening injuries. The livestock escaped unharmed.
The driver of the livestock trailer was ticketed for careless driving and going too fast for the conditions. At the time I-70 was coated in snow from Empire to Summit and west into the Vail area. Multiple other, smaller crashes and spin-offs were clogging traffic all day.
Complicating matters there in Empire was an auxiliary diesel tank. This ruptured in the crash and a hazmat team was called in to mop it up. I-70 reopened just after 1:35 p.m.
Rowdy road holiday
This comes after a snowy and often tense President’s Day weekend on the I-70 mountain corridor. Hundreds of thousands of travelers were stuck in at least five extended closures starting Friday.
On Saturday evening a drunken car chase added to the chaos, when Jeffrey Parent, 44, of Hawaii, fled sheriff’s deputies in Copper. He swerved in and out of traffic, sometimes driving on the shoulder, before state patrol troopers blew his tires. Parent is charged with 10 crimes including felony DUI, eluding and resisting arrest.
