People really need to slow down on I70

This is happening too often.  Too many times have I seen or heard of accidents like this.  I have witnessed a few this season. 

This happen this morning.....


SILVERTHORNE —A rollover Tuesday morning on Interstate 70 killed a pregnant woman who was ejected from the back seat of an SUV traveling eastbound below the Eisenhower Tunnel.

According to Colorado State Patrol, the back seat passenger was 7-months pregnant and may not have been wearing a seat belt.

“There were three people in the vehicle and the back seat female passenger was partially ejected,” said Capt. Ron Prater with the Colorado State Patrol. “The vehicle went approximately 300 feet off the road and rolled as many as six times.”

According to Capt. Prater, the Nissan Pathfinder that rolled off the roadway was registered in Frisco, but the names of the passengers are not being released at this time. Lake Dillon Fire-Rescue crews were the first to arrive on the scene and had to use ropes and pulleys to repel down the embankment in order to extract passengers from the wreck.

“Responders repelled down and stabilized the car so they could extract the people inside,” said Brandon Williams with Lake Dillon Fire-Rescue. “It was an incredible team effort and crews were able to lift the passengers up by hand and get them into the ambulance that was waiting on scene.”

According to Williams, the steep angle of the embankment made the scene incredibly difficult to navigate. Poor visibility also complicated the rescue efforts, he said.

State Patrol is now following up with witnesses who saw the crash but suspect the cause was directly related to traveling too fast for the road conditions.

“It’s important to send out the safety message that driving in the mountains of Colorado is very serious,” said Prater. “Conditions can change from wet to icy in just a matter of miles, and people need to slow down and be aware of the ever-changing conditions.”