Box truck sideswipes state trooper’s cruiser in Castle Rock

Photo byColorado State Patrol

Heather Willard / NewsBreak Denver / Feb. 6, 2023

(Castle Rock, Colo.) The Colorado State Patrol wants drivers to keep their heads up and phones down after another patrol cruiser was struck near Castle Rock in Douglas County.

The Colorado State Patrol has publicized three crashes involving the agency’s cruisers since the start of the year, including two in Douglas County. The most recent crash occurred at approximately 7:10 a.m., Tuesday, Jan. 31 in the westbound lanes of Meadows Parkway (U.S. 85).

The trooper was in an unmarked cruiser headed to work, and both vehicles were estimated to be moving at about 10 mph. Neither the trooper nor company driver were injured, but the civilian was cited for careless driving as a result of distraction.

Lane violations have driven Colorado’s crash rates in recent years, according to the Colorado State Patrol. Of the fatal crashes the patrol investigated from January through July 2022, 21.6% were caused by a driver traveling outside the designated lane, and 18% were caused by a driver getting behind the wheel while impaired. Additionally, the state recorded 745 fatal crashes in 2022, the most since 1981.

According to the Colorado Department of Transportation’s fatal crash data, two people died on Douglas County roads during January. Last year, CDOT reported 31 individuals died in DougCo from a road crash. An additional 101 serious injury crashes were reported in Douglas County.

“We find a variety of reasons people fail to drive in their designated lane, but some of the most common are driving under the influence of drugs or alcohol, driving aggressively or being distracted behind the wheel,” stated Sgt. Troy Kessler, Colorado State Patrol public information officer.

“In this case the driver wasn’t paying attention to where he was headed. He was looking at his GPS because he was unfamiliar with the area and his truck moved into the adjacent lane. No road, weather, or other extenuating circumstance contributed to the crash.”

Colorado troopers made over 12,650 traffic stops for lane violations in 2022. Driving distracted has consistently been one of the top causal factors for serious injury and fatal crashes in Colorado during the last five years.