Rob Low at FOX31 contacted several local leaders and CDOT to cover more in-depth the latest fatality
on Highway 285 where we've all witnessed far too many serious accidents. As Aspen Peak Cellars Winery owner Marcel Flukiger said when interviewed, we hope this means action toward solving the dangerous hill and curve. If you have time, your letters to CDOT and our local representatives asking them to take steps to mitigate the danger would mean a lot. Thanks!
BAILEY, Colo. (KDVR) — After a semitruck driver lost control of their vehicle last Monday and flipped a massive earth mover machine into the North Fork South Platte River, many locals in Bailey were saying, “not again.”
[Tim] Gregg [director of development for the Platte Canyon Area Chamber of Commerce] says crash data he compiled from the Colorado Department of Transportation website shows 72 traffic incidents at mile marker 222 along Highway 285 between 2007 and 2020.
[Stephen] Harelson [the chief engineer for CDOT] told the Problem Solvers he doesn’t think a lower speed limit would help and said a runaway truck ramp, something the state considered 20 years ago, would now cost $5 million to $10 million.
“I don’t know that it’s cost prohibitive. It’s certainly feasible,” Harelson said, who added it would be more feasible to spend $1.3 million on a concrete guardrail and cable barriers at the bottom of Crow Hill. Harelson told the Problem Solvers installing the concrete guardrail on the river side of Highway 285 and a cable net barrier in the median only takes about a month but admits construction isn’t likely to start for another year because of CDOT’s approval process.
"Now, more than ever, the illusions of division threaten our very existence. We all know the truth: more connects us than separates us. But in times of crisis the wise build bridges, while the foolish build barriers. We must find a way to look after one another as if we were one single tribe.” -King T'Challa, Black Panther
The truth is incontrovertible. Malice may attack it. ignorance may deride it, but in the end, there it is. ~Winston Churchill
