A two-vehicle crash that closed part of Interstate 70 Thursday, paralyzing holiday traffic for hours, occurred when the driver of a Ram 3500 van driving west weaved from the second lane onto the shoulder and struck the rear of a parked semi-truck, the Colorado State Patrol said.
The crash was at mile marker 218 near the Eisenhower Tunnel just after 1 p.m. The Ram spun and rolled once before bursting into flames, CSP Trooper Sherri Mendez said in an email Friday.
The driver of the van, a 40-year-old man, and a dog riding with him died. Mendez said the semi driver, a 62-year-old man from Virginia, wasn’t injured.
The interstate was closed for hours in both directions, between exit 205 at Dillon and Silverthorne and exit 216 at Loveland Pass.
Mendez said she didn’t know where the van driver was from. More information about him will be released by the Summit County coroner.
The state patrol’s vehicular crimes unit is investigating what caused the crash, Mendez said.
Updated July 8, 2025, at 4:54 p.m. to correct that vehicle driven by the man who died was a van.
