Bipartisan Roberts Bill to Improve Safety, Keep Traffic Flowing on Mountain Highways Earns Committee Approval

DENVER, CO – Bipartisan legislation sponsored by Senator Dylan Roberts, D-Frisco, that would improve safety and keep traffic flowing on Colorado’s mountain highways earned approval before the Senate Transportation & Energy Committee today.

SB24-100, also sponsored by Senator Perry Will, R-New Castle, would improve safety by allowing the Colorado Department of Transportation (CDOT) to establish a zone with double speeding fines for commercial drivers in Glenwood Canyon. The bill would also ban commercial motor vehicles (CMVs) from driving in the left lane on I-70 when there are three lanes in that direction, except to pass vehicles going under the speed limit in four key stretches where crashes are frequent and disruptive.

“The last few winters on our mountain highways have been particularly challenging with way too many avoidable closures as the result of unprepared CMV drivers,” Roberts said. “We can’t control the weather, but avoidable crashes, spin-outs, and other accidents have unnecessarily closed our highways and hurt our economy by delaying the delivery of goods, negatively impacting tourism and the businesses in the mountains that rely on visitors, and causing lost time and frustration for the constituents I represent and every Coloradan that travels to the Western Slope. We can do better and this bipartisan bill will help immensely.”

According to CDOT, CMVs represent about 7 percent of traffic, but account for more than 52 percent of traffic incidents. Wrecks involving CMVs take nearly twice as long to clear as passenger incidents. 

SB24-100 would further expand locations where CDOT may require traction equipment from parts of I-70 to other U.S. highways west of Morrison, and it would give port of entry officers the powers of a peace officer when enforcing highway closures while directing CDOT to study additional locations for chain-up stations.

SB24-100 will now move to the Senate Appropriations Committee for further consideration. Track the bill’s progress HERE.