{"id":16325,"date":"2025-10-01T23:52:09","date_gmt":"2025-10-01T23:52:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/state-patrol-cracks-down-early-on-colorado-mountain-chain-law\/"},"modified":"2026-03-31T03:56:21","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T03:56:21","slug":"state-patrol-cracks-down-early-on-colorado-mountain-chain-law","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/state-patrol-cracks-down-early-on-colorado-mountain-chain-law\/","title":{"rendered":"State Patrol cracks down early on Colorado mountain chain law"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Cars
Cars follow two Colorado Department of Transportation snowplows Tuesday near Purgatory Resort on U.S. Highway 550 as snow falls in the mountains. (Jerry McBride\/Durango Herald)<\/span>cca<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>\n

Commercial drivers leaving Montezuma County for routes over the San Juan and central mountain passes are already required to carry tire chains \u2013 even under Wednesday\u2019s sunny skies.<\/p>\n

Colorado State Patrol underscored that rule with a chain-law checkpoint on I-70 near Dotsero on Wednesday, aiming to prevent costly fines, closures and delays when the first snow hits.<\/p>\n

Drivers heading into high country during winter often see flashing road signs on mountain passes warning them the chain law is in effect.<\/p>\n

Cortez trucker Ty Harris described the experience as nerve-racking when conditions deteriorate quickly.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou\u2019re trying to get off the highway into a chain-up area that can already be crowded with other trucks,\u201d Harris said Wednesday in an interview during a fuel stop.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou\u2019ve got to throw chains in the snow while cars and semis are still going by. It can be dangerous if it\u2019s busy,\u201d Harris said.<\/p>\n

CSP says it is focusing on early season checks during days with mild weather so that troopers can keep highways open and avoid delays when storms arrive.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt may seem counterintuitive to do chain enforcement on a blue-sky day,\u201d CSP Capt. John Hahn said. \u201cBut we\u2019d much rather reach drivers now, before they find themselves in a storm without chains.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Colorado
Colorado Department of Transportation snowplows are out in force on mountain passes 2016 as a heavy storm brews in the San Juan Mountains. (Jerry McBride\/Durango Herald)<\/span>JERRY McBRIDE\/Durango Herald<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>
The rules and stakes<\/div>\n

Under Colorado\u2019s must-carry law, commercial vehicles over 16,000 pounds or carrying 16 or more passengers must keep chains or other approved traction devices with them on board from Sept. 1 through May 31.<\/p>\n

When winter storms hit and the chain law is activated, drivers must chain up before attempting high-elevation corridors. Especially in risk areas, such as the east end of the I-70 corridor coming from the Denver metro area and highways around Floyd Hill, Georgetown Hill, the Eisenhower-Johnson tunnel and Vail Pass.<\/p>\n

Last winter, Hahn said CSP issued 374 citations to trucks that failed to chain up when required and 122 citations to trucks that failed to chain up, became stuck and blocked lanes. Another 257 citations went to passenger vehicles for violating traction laws.<\/p>\n

Unchained or unprepared vehicles often lead to closures along I-70 trouble spots \u2013 shutdowns that can delay vehicles for hours and cost freight haulers, ski resorts and mountain communities millions of dollars a day, according to 2023 CDOT data<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The Colorado Sun<\/em> reported 1-70 hot spot Vail is stepping up efforts to curb winter highway closures<\/a>. Vail passed an emergency ordinance this winter setting a $1,500 fine for trucks without chains during chain-law conditions and $2,650 for unchained semis that block traffic.<\/p>\n

Out-of-state drivers face learning curve<\/div>\n

Sometimes, drivers simply aren\u2019t ready for Colorado\u2019s steep grades and unpredictable weather.<\/p>\n

\u201cA lot of rookies come out of CDL (commercial driver\u2019s license) school in the South and have never even driven in snow, let alone chained up a big rig,\u201d Harris said. \u201cThey get a few weeks of training, then they\u2019re sent over the Rockies. I\u2019ve had drivers come up to me in a storm asking how to throw chains, because they\u2019ve never actually done it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Harris said seasoned mountain drivers learn to plan ahead, watch the weather and adapt, but the learning curve is steep for newcomers or out-of-state haulers.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019d like to see more of that training built into CDL school or maybe even a special endorsement for mountain driving,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Last winter, Harris chained up his 1985 Kenworth W900B only twice, both times on a snowpacked gravel road.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou just have to preplan and keep your head on a swivel,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Hahn confirmed gaps in experience is a persistent issue the patrol and CDOT focuses on every winter.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe deal with a lot of trucks that come here and end up in a crash or a situation they weren\u2019t prepared for \u2013 not because they\u2019re not skilled drivers, but simply because they lack familiarity with the unique challenges we have here,\u201d Hahn said.<\/p>\n

Tech targets out-of-state drivers<\/div>\n

\u201cThe real challenge is, how do we reach that truck driver who is in Kentucky or Tennessee or Florida before they ever get here?\u201d Hahn said.<\/p>\n

CSP is utilizing geofenced, in-cab messaging for a second winter to address this issue. The system sends alerts to truckers\u2019 electronic logbooks as they cross state lines, warning them they must carry chains on I-70 and other mountain routes.<\/p>\n

Drivers who fail to comply face a $500 fine plus a $79 surcharge. If a vehicle gets stuck and blocks traffic, the penalty rises to $1,000 plus a $157 surcharge.<\/p>\n

\u2018A shared responsibility\u2019<\/div>\n

For truckers passing through high-elevation corridors, Hahn said, the message is simple: Be winter ready before getting on the road.<\/p>\n

\u201cRoad safety on I-70 is a shared responsibility,\u201d Hahn said. \u201cThat includes passenger vehicles. A single car spinning out can cause a truck to stop midgrade, and if that truck doesn\u2019t have chains, it can end up blocking the whole lane.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

urges compliance to keep I-70 safe when storms hit <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":16326,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[28,29,1164,88],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-16325","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-headlines","tag-newsletter","tag-snow","tag-weather-news"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16325","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16325"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16325\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":77186,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16325\/revisions\/77186"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/16326"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16325"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16325"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16325"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=16325"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}