The Colorado Department of Transportation is under scrutiny after more than two dozen people died in construction zone crashes this year.
Colorado members of U.S. Congress are now demanding answers from CDOT. They fired off a letter to U.S. Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg that cites whistleblowers — including contractors — who say CDOT is “disregarding state and federal safety guidelines.”
CDOT’s own data shows a 48% increase in construction zone fatalities over last year. CBS News Colorado obtained police records that show reckless drivers are the blame for some of those crashes. But according to Wheat Ridge Police Department, CDOT is at least partly to blame for some deaths too, including a crash in August that killed a newlywed couple.
Just four days after starting their married life together, Ruben and Juliana Rodriguez were dead. They were killed — along with Juliana’s mother Luz Martinez — after a semi rolled in a construction zone on I-70 and Ward Road, sending pipes that weigh about 500 pounds each into oncoming traffic. Wheat Ridge Police found “no probable cause to believe” the semi driver was to blame. Instead, they pointed to a detour CDOT set up to divert traffic around the construction as a factor in the crash. Dashcam video shows an investigator driving the detour as the highway elevation drops to the right at the same time the road curves left.