As a big snowstorm impacted travel ahead of the Thanksgiving holiday, Colorado transportation officials increased resources throughout the Interstate 70 mountain corridor, while Summit County law enforcement watched the situation from a central location.
According to the National Weather Service, the snowfall fell 18 to 24 inches in Summit County between late Monday, Nov. 25, and early Wednesday, Nov. 27. As automobiles slid out on ice roads around the county, public safety officials occasionally shuttered roadways and mountain passes for safety.
According to Austyn Dineen, communications director for the Colorado Department of Transportation’s I-70 mountain corridor, six additional heavy plow trucks were stationed in the mountains before to the storm.
“Our maintenance crews were working diligently to make sure roads were cleared for travelers,” Dineen told reporters. “The staff was working hard. The average snowfall rate was roughly one inch per hour. So it was coming down hard.”
According to the Colorado Department of Transportation, the I-70 mountain corridor saw four safety closures between Monday and Wednesday as a result of many spun-out commercial and passenger cars. However, Dineen pointed out that none of those restrictions were extended. CoTrip.org, she explained, can be a valuable resource for travelers monitoring closures during a winter storm.
According to Colorado State Patrol public information trooper Sherri Mendez, at 6:30 p.m. Tuesday, law enforcement got a report that a semitrailer was engaged in a hit-and-run near Silverthorne’s Exit 205.
During the storm, from about 4 p.m. to just before midnight Tuesday, the State Patrol aided 42 cars who had spun out or slid off I-70 between Silverthorne and just past the Eisenhower-Johnson Memorial Tunnels, Mendez said.
On Wednesday alone, the State Patrol issued 50 tickets to people who did not follow the state’s passenger vehicle traction statute, which requires vehicles to have four- or all-wheel drive, snow-rated tires, or a traction device like chains, according to Mendez. She stated that the majority of the vehicles issued citations were rented automobiles.
Silverthorne Town Manager Ryan Hyland stated that while I-70 Exit 205 “gummed up” traffic in town during the winter, the delays were brief and had no affect on plowing or public safety.
Some concerns with automobiles coming down the hill from Frisco caused delays on I-70, but Hyland said they were resolved quickly. He stated that following the massive traffic bottleneck created by a snowstorm over Martin Luther King Jr. Day weekend last January, the town purchased a side-by-side off-road vehicle to react to calls if traffic became an issue – but the vehicle was not used in this latest snowstorm.
The power interruption on Monday night may have been the most significant event of the storm, according to Hyland. That power outage affected hundreds of consumers in Frisco and Silverthorne for a few hours that night.
“Storms keep us busy, but overall, it turned out to be a fairly uneventful event from Silverthorne’s perspective,” Hyland told me. “All our systems worked as designed.”
Throughout the snowstorm, vehicles on Colorado Highway 9, which connects Summit and Park counties, reported extensive slide-offs and stranded semitrailers on Hoosier Pass.
According to Lt. Jennifer Plutt of the Park County Sheriff’s Office, Hoosier Pass was closed from 6 p.m. until 9:30 p.m. Tuesday due to several two-vehicle crashes, multiple slide-offs, and two stalled semitrailers.
“When it comes to where it endangers my officers or the traveling public, we have to take everyone’s safety as a top priority,” Plutt told the crowd. “So that’s what led to the closure.”
Summit County Sheriff’s Office public affairs Sgt. Mike Schilling stated that deputies aided with multiple slide-offs and trapped vehicles throughout the storm, as well as responding to non-storm-related calls for service.
From Loveland Pass to Hoosier Pass, Schilling said Sheriff’s Office staff assisted with storm-related occurrences throughout the county. He stated that during a storm like Summit County had this week, drivers should exercise additional caution on the highways and yield to tow trucks and emergency vehicles.
Due to the weather and holiday travel, Schilling stated that the Sheriff’s Office’s Emergency Operations Department established the Emergency Operations Center at the County Commons in Frisco. The Emergency Operations Center functions as a primary center for public safety officers from many agencies to coordinate, he explained.
“In situations like this, the Emergency Operations Center serves as a central hub, coordinating with federal, state, and local partners to gather, assess, and distribute real-time information to responders and stakeholders,” Summit County Sheriff Jaime FitzSimons stated. “As incidents evolve or new needs emerge, the EOC ensures that additional resources are directed where they are needed most.”
