Unprepared drivers caused an extended closure on Interstate 70 on Tuesday night, March 4, leaving vehicles stranded for hours on end, according to the Colorado Department of Transportation.

During the “major closure” state highway officials responded to multiple incidents involving spun-out passenger vehicles, commercial motor vehicles and collided semis, all blocking eastbound I-70 between Silverthorne and the Eisenhower-Johnson Memorial Tunnels, CDOT mountain corridor communications manager Austyn Dineen said in an email.

“When unprepared motorists — both passenger and commercial — fail to take responsibility, closures will continue and likely worsen,” Dineen said in her email. “The bottom line: Drivers must take responsibility for their own safety. If everyone drove cautiously and prepared for conditions, we’d see fewer crashes and major closures.”

On Monday before the storm, transportation department officials, the Colorado State Patrol and the National Weather Service issued warnings about blizzard conditions throughout much of the state. 

Despite the warnings, many motorists failed to adjust their plans and remained unprepared for the conditions Tuesday on the I-70 mountain corridor, Dineen said. Those who are unprepared to drive on Colorado’s mountain roads are “endangering both your life and the lives of others,” she said.

Denver area resident Nathaniel Flowers said he drove up to the mountains Monday night to stay with a friend before skiing Vail on Tuesday. Flowers said he stopped in Silverthorne for a burger on his way home Tuesday, then hopped on I-70 at the Exit 205 on-ramp just after 4:30 p.m. before almost immediately hitting standstill traffic.

Flowers said as he slowly worked his way up toward the tunnels over the course of hours, “more and more people were just not wearing chains, sliding around.” After skiing 50 days last season, he said he automatically calculates a longer drive back to Denver and has a four-wheel drive Subaru with snow tires — but the more than four hours it took him to get to the tunnels was the worst traffic jam he’s experienced.

“You’re just inching, inching, inching, and you pass a car that is spinning that can’t move because they don’t have proper snow traction,” Flowers said. “You go past that a little bit, and it’s another 18-wheeler who failed to chain up properly. But they’re just in different lanes. You know how when you play ‘Frogger,’ trying to jump across the road? It felt like that.”

Another Denver area resident, Brandon Vaughan, used the same video-game metaphor to describe his experience on I-70. After leaving Copper Mountain and stopping in Dillon, Vaughan said he hopped on the Exit 205 on-ramp toward Denver around 5:15 p.m. and did not make it home until the early hours of Wednesday morning. During his six hours stuck in traffic, he said he watched an entire Lakers game and a movie on his phone.

“There were probably 10 semi-trucks that were just sprawled across I-70 eastbound. It was like ‘Tetris,’ they were just in various positions. We were playing ‘Frogger,'” Vaughan said. “All the (semi-trailer) drivers out there were immobilized, trying to chain up. It was like a minefield.”

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Both Flowers and Vaughan said that their vehicles were well-equipped for the conditions with plenty of gas and necessities like food and water. But both noted that there was no way to turn around or get off the interstate between Silverthorne and the tunnels. Vaughan called the extended closure a “safety issue” and noted that other vehicles, including those with families, did not appear to be as well equipped. He said better communication from highway officials would have gone a long way for those trapped on the interstate.

Dineen noted that, statistically, for every one minute a highway like I-70 is closed, congestion increases by four minutes as drivers continue to pile up. She noted that the transportation department and other highway officials work to continually educate the public on how to be “winter-wise” but “many drivers still ignore the guidance, causing major delays for those who are prepared on the roadway.”

The transportation department officially closed I-70 eastbound at 6:45 p.m. Tuesday, and the roadway did not fully reopen until 4 a.m. Wednesday morning, Dineen said. As soon as the closure was implemented, CDOT lit up electronic signs to warn drivers of the closure and give them the opportunity to exit but between Silverthorne’s Exit 205 and the tunnels, there are few places to turn around, she said, adding “this is why CDOT and many other partners stress personal responsibility.”

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Colorado has a passenger vehicle traction law and a commercial vehicle chain law. Colorado State Patrol public information officer trooper Sherri Mendez said that as semitractor-trailers blocked the interstate Tuesday, troopers assisted some with putting on chains. Mendez said that State Patrol could not immediately provide information on whether any citations were issued for traction law or chain law violations.

Mountain Recovery owner Charlie Stubblefield said that the conditions Tuesday night on the way up to the tunnels were so bad that even semi-trailers with chains and winter-equipped passenger vehicles were having issues.

“We were pulling trucks with chains and without chains,” Stubblefield said. “We were towing all-wheel drive vehicles. There was a pretty stubborn icy layer on the pavement and then snow on top of that, which made it a very hard surface for the plows.”

Stubblefield, however, noted that the snowstorm was forecast so he was “taken aback by how people found themselves in these situations.” He said drivers should check the weather before leaving and know that especially at the I-70 tunnels conditions can be worse than they are elsewhere in the state.

“These storms are really sneaking up on people who are just driving around really uninformed,” Stubblefield said, noting that another snowstorm is expected to hit the mountains ahead of the weekend.

The National Weather Service has issued a winter weather advisory for Summit and Grand counties from 3 p.m. Thursday, March 6, until 11 p.m. Friday, March 7. Four to 10 inches are expected in the mountains as well as winds up to 55 mph, with the heaviest snowfall Friday evening.

Motorists should not travel during winter storms unless they have to. But Dineen said those who do head out during the storm should visit COTrip.org to monitor road conditions and closures and download the COTrip Planner app in advance. She added, “The best-case scenario is that motorists recognize that they are solely responsible for their decisions when driving through a dangerous mountain pass during a blizzard warning.”

Drivers can visit CODOT.gov/travel/winter-driving for more information on how to be prepared for winter driving conditions in the mountains.