Interstate 70 was closed for hours on Monday after a crash at the Eisenhower Tunnel injured a Colorado State Patrol trooper and two other people, according to the agency.
The trooper was airlifted to the hospital after the crash, which involved four vehicles across lanes in both directions, according to a news release from the Colorado State Patrol.
State patrol officials said the unidentified trooper was parked on the right shoulder of eastbound I-70 near the tunnel at about 10:45 a.m. Monday when he overheard on the radio that there was a crash behind him in the westbound lanes, according to the news release.
He activated his emergency lights and started to turn across traffic to respond to the crash, but was hit by an eastbound Subaru Forester SUV, state patrol officials said in the release. The crash sent the trooper and the SUV across the highway median, striking two pickup trucks in the westbound lanes.
Paramedics took the Subaru driver and passenger, an elderly couple, to the hospital with unknown injuries, state patrol officials said. No one in the pickup trucks was injured.
Buck, a state patrol police dog in the car with the trooper, was taken to a veterinarian “as a precautionary measure,” officials said.
I-70 was closed in both directions between Exit 216 for Loveland Pass and Colorado 9, near Silverthorne, at about 11 a.m. Monday, . Eastbound I-70 reopened shortly before 1:45 p.m., and the westbound lanes reopened at about 2:20 p.m., according to the agency.
showed westbound traffic stalled for miles before the highway reopened.
Anyone with information about the crash is asked to contact Colorado State Patrol investigators at 303-239-4501 and reference case number VC260276.
This is a developing story and may be updated.
