Truckers travel I-70 in the Eastern Plains after snowstorm causes series of pileups

Truckers were rolling again along Interstate 70 east of the Denver metro area after the highway was shut down much of Wednesday and a good portion of Thursday. Some drivers filling up their trucks with fuel thought about how rough it had been only 24 hours before. 

"I carry chains, but that truck has never seen a chain on it," veteran trucker John Janssen said. He uses chain-up requirements as a warning. "If it's bad enough to put chains on, it's bad enough to park a truck."

Other truckers had continued through the storm on Wednesday. Dozens went off the highway or collided with other trucks and four cars in blizzard like conditions. One owner operator who crashed explained that he needed to keep going in the storm to pay for his truck and trailer, which were subsequently destroyed in the pileup. 

"For somebody like the owner operators where they're getting paid possibly by the mile or by the load, yeah, it is going to be disruptive for them," said Greg Fulton, president of the Colorado Motor Carriers Association. There are logistics to think about getting across Colorado. "You're planning actually where you're going to be. You're planning on what you're going to end up loads and all this other things," Fulton said.

Colorado Department of Transportation did not put a mandatory chain-up requirement into place for trucks traveling I-70 during the storm. While such requirements are frequent during storms in the mountains, on Colorado's Eastern Plains, they are rare. "Chains do not help stopping. Chains help with climbing traction," wrote CDOT's head of maintenance and operations.

Fulton noted there is one chain-up area near E-470, but not enough others along that part of I-70. There is also a shortage, he said, of places to stop. "One of the challenges we have is we don't have enough truck parking in the state — a place which is safe — that has facilities like bathrooms and other things."

Federal regulation also limits the amount of hours truckers can work consecutively, allowing 11 hours of driving in a 13-hour day. "If I stop that vehicle because of a storm and I'm waiting for four hours, that's going to take four hours off of my day," Fulton said. It provides more motivation to keep moving, even when conditions are atrocious.

Driver Christian Waring has been on the road alone as a trucker now for less than a month. He's yet to put on chains, but doesn't feel the need to tangle with bad weather. He felt fortunate not to be pressured to drive on. 

"I'm grateful for the company I work for because they're real strict on their rules and stuff like that," Waring said. "They just tell us to pull over, come to the nearest truck stop and just go to sleep for the night. Wake up tomorrow morning, and do it all again."