I 70 sucks

[tball]

I think that's a significant first step. The current weak traction law will be in place on I-70 all winter.

I hope they take the necessary second step at some point. Put in place a traction law that has a higher standard during storms, one that requires four-wheel drive vehicles to have M+S tires or better, and two-wheel drive vehicles to have mountain snowflake tires.

 

[Kneale Brownson]

Don't know. Many times I've seen front-wheel-drive "suv" types sliding backwards down Wellington Rd. in Breck with their front wheel "snow" tires screaming.

 

[Ratbastrd]

Haaa! Try I-80 on a snow day. Surprised more people haven't died over the years, either from jack-knifing walmart trucks, or freezing to death sitting in idle cars overnight waiting for the pass to reopen.

 

[skix]

If you are driving in snow on I-70 in the mountains it would not hurt to remember you are in the mountains! So it ain't all bad. You could be headed east through Kansas after all.

Went around the blizzard below by heading up to I-80. Trip still sucked.

 

[Bill Miles]

I used to drive between Wichita and the Colorado mountains several times a year. Some comments:

It sure was nice seeing the mountains in the distance when hitting the KS/CO border heading west. It wasn't so nice seeing them disappear in the rear view mirror heading the other way.

More than once, I encountered worse road conditions in the plains than in the mountains, due to drifting. At least once, I had to find a motel folr the night.

 

[EricG]

I70 in Kansas sucks. I’ve been stuck in Salina KS several times and the food/hotel selection sucks unless your trolling for a lot lizard. It’s worse than being stuck in Mitchell SD on i90, atleast in Mitchell I can get a steak & hit up the corn palace.

 

[Doug Briggs]

All-lane closure on I-70; Wrecks will likely take hours to clear

 

[Wilhelmson]

They close down the highway because a few cars went off the road?

 

[Kneale Brownson]

No because of the idiots who otherwise would be endangering the folks who will be pulling those cars out of the ditch

 

[dbostedo]

Appears to be closed east-bound at Vail pass, and west-bound near Copper (you can see the direction if you hover over the closures... the one near Copper says "I-70 W closed until 6 PM") No time appears for Vail pass.

 

[Wilhelmson]

Unless it's a rollover around here one or two police cars with lights on would block a lane while a tow truck gets the car off the road with traffic passing through slowly in the other lane.

 

[dbostedo]

Unless it's a rollover around here one or two police cars with lights on would block a lane while a tow truck gets the car off the road with traffic passing through slowly in the other lane.

That's generally true most places. But if you're familiar with the number of accidents and issues they've had on I-70, it's likely they think the risk is too high to let others pass, and that more issues would just occur. I suspect frequent closures will discourage people from heading out when it's bad to begin with, and further reduce incidents.

 

[Mike King]

Multiple car accidents plus slick roads = don't open road until they clear the carnage. Otherwise the idiots will just compound the problem and possibly kill some of the roadworkers who are clearing the accidents.

 

[mikel]

Unless it's a rollover around here one or two police cars with lights on would block a lane while a tow truck gets the car off the road with traffic passing through slowly in the other lane.

Here they use fire trucks most of the time. That is Copper's ladder truck in the video posted by Doug in an area that received a lot of attention a month or so ago.

 

[Doug Briggs]

They close down the highway because a few cars went off the road?

I'm surmising you are jesting as there were dozens of vehicles in the accident and some appeared to be rollovers.

 

[doc]

Otherwise the idiots will just compound the problem and possibly kill some of the roadworkers who are clearing the accidents.

Which happened recently to the CSP trooper killed on the side of road in northern CO by someone sliding out of control in the last bomb cyclone storm. RIP.

 

[dbostedo]

I'm surmising you are jesting as there were dozens of vehicles in the accident and some appeared to be rollovers.

I don't think he was jesting... just referencing the video, which only shows a few cars of the road. I haven't seen anything on the total number of vehicles or any rollovers, but that would make sense. I just figured they were being super cautious.

 

[tball]

That is Copper's ladder truck in the video posted by Doug in an area that received a lot of attention a month or so ago.

Probably best to avoid that area!

 

[tball]

I wonder if the accident was caused by a careless driver distracted by the avalanche debris?

 

[Wilhelmson]

That makes more sense. Yes, the video only shows a couple cars that spun out. For safety sake maybe they should just shut down the road anytime it snows out.