A multivehicle wreck last month involving two tractor trailers descending westbound from Eisenhower Johnson Memorial Tunnel injured five people — one critically — and closed Interstate 70 for more than eight hours.
The driver of one truck, who was later cited for reckless driving, reportedly lost his brakes and hit another truck, causing both to swerve across three lanes, through the guardrail, down the embankment and into oncoming traffic.
While the magnitude of this collision was unusual, the loss of brakes among commercial vehicles in the mountains is not. The crash illustrates the high stakes for truckers and nearby vehicles when things go wrong on the I-70 mountain corridor.
Scott Maurer and Joe Trussell are working to prevent wrecks like these. The two run CDL 303, the only commercial driver’s license school in the U.S. that offers a comprehensive mountain training program to ensure truckers have the necessary knowledge, skills and experience to navigate Colorado’s mountain roads safely.
“Our goal … is to get everybody home safe, every night,” said Trussell, operations manager for the Commerce City-based school.
Anyone who regularly travels I-70 in the high country knows winter weather closures are common September through May. Those closures can be caused by any number of reasons, but if a semitruck is involved — whether the truck is at fault or not — the impacts are automatically greater. Whether a truck has lost traction, jackknifed or is involved in a collision it will likely affect more lanes and take more time to clean up before the road can reopen.
According to the Colorado Department of Transportation, each hour I-70 is closed results in an estimated economic loss of more than $1 million and those impacts can extend 100 or more miles.
Summer weather’s dry roads don’t necessarily minimize accidents and closures.
“The vast majority of crashes on the I-70 (mountain) corridor happen in sunny and dry weather,” said Craig Hurst, CDOT freight and mobility manager.
CDOT, the Colorado State Patrol and Colorado Motor Carriers Association work together with the trucking industry in an effort to minimize the potential of accidents and closures involving tractor trailers. Strategies include chain laws, fines and enforcement, said Captain John Hahn, commander of the CSP’s motor carrier safety section, but a large part of the solution is outreach and education.
“Ninety-two percent of runaway truck ramp incidents that we have record of are from out-of-state drivers that have less than five years experience driving and it’s usually within their first five times driving the I-70 mountain corridor,” Hurst said. “Overuse of brakes is common for inexperienced drivers.”
Wreckage littered the eastbound lanes of Interstate 70 after a collision that spilled from the westbound lanes near Silverthorne and closed the highway for hours on June 4, 2025. (CDOT photo)Warnings for drivers new to mountain roads
Hurst and his team use several approaches to reach those out-of-state drivers. In-cab messaging warns drivers as they approach specific “danger” zones along the mountain corridor, such as in the tunnel, before the descent. They have also created programming for Road Dog Trucking, a SiriusXM station, as well as “The Mountain Rules” YouTube videos, to educate truckers on mountain driving safety.
Maurer, a former welder who also taught welding at the Emily Griffith High School in Denver and at Metropolitan State University of Denver, enrolled in CDL school in 2021, as he made a career change to trucking. He hauled goods on his flatbed trailer for two years before founding CDL 303.
“I really like teaching and I felt like I could contribute more to the (trucking) industry through education,” Maurer said, adding he felt there were gaps in his CDL training and believed he could teach others in a more effective way.
“The idea, initially, was to provide the highest quality CDL training in Colorado,” Trussell said.
Scott Maurer, left, and Joe Trussell, sit for a portrait in their office in Commerce City. Maurer and Trussell operate CDL 303, a business devoted to providing aspiring truck-drivers with training and testing. (Jeremy Sparig, Special to The Colorado Sun)As CDL 303 gained traction, it partnered with RoadAware Safety Systems, a company that offers an app with real-time assistance and guidance for the drivers of commercial vehicles navigating roads across the nation. The Road-Aware app alerts drivers of upcoming curves and steep grades on their route and offers a suggested safe speed, based on their truck size and load. Together, CDL 303 and RoadAware created an online mountain driving course that CDL 303 offers for free to its students, but can be accessed by CDL drivers anywhere.
“Research shows the majority of accidents (involving commercial vehicles) that occur on the I-70 mountain corridor are caused by out-of-state drivers,” Trussell said. “To me, that points to a lack of training and a lack of knowledge.”
Mountain driving was one of the important areas Maurer felt was missing from his CDL training. Because he has lived in Colorado and played in its mountains for 30 years, Maurer already had decades of mountain driving experience before he earned his CDL, but he still didn’t feel prepared to drive a commercial vehicle on those same roads. After getting his CDL, and before he began hauling loads, Maurer took his flatbed, empty, into the mountains and taught himself how to maneuver his truck around sharp curves and steep descents before finally taking on a load.
CDL 303’s mountain training now includes four levels — each with a mountain driving certificate — the highest level which includes a three-day, hands-on-the-wheel, in-cab training. Typical training for this level includes driving I-70 west from Denver, up and over Loveland Pass on U.S. 6 with its steep, hairpin turns, back to I-70 headed eastbound, up and through the tunnel, to Denver.
“Our mountain training course covers everything — how to use an engine brake, how to negotiate curves, steep descents, mountain weather, high winds and chain-up procedures,” Trussell said. “Safety not only saves lives, but it saves money (for the fleets).”
While there are trucking fleets that offer mountain-specific training to their employees, “CDL 303 is the only public school that we know of that is using engineering- and science-based methods to improve mountain drive training,” Hurst said.
Scholarships for drivers wishing to upgrade skills
Scott Maurer, left, observes as CDL 303 instructor Yacin Djaoui provides instruction to Jose Luis Ruiz Garibay in the parking lot of the Denver Flea Market. (Jeremy Sparig, Special to The Colorado Sun)CDOT, along with CSP and the Department of Revenue, are beginning a pilot scholarship program with CDL 303 to offer the mountain driving course to drivers who just received or are renewing their CDL or who are simply looking for more training, he said.
“What we’re trying to do collectively at the state … is to come together to prove there’s more work to be done to improve safety in the country, in mountain corridors,” Hurst said. “Our goal is to improve the federal requirements of mountain driving training.”
While it may seem like commercial vehicles are often involved in highway closures — and folks are quick to blame them, if they are — Hahn said wrecks involving commercial vehicles are actually trending down.
“I think the industry will tell you they’re keenly aware they have work to do to make the situation better,” he said, “(but), I would point out that in many of these crashes that involve a truck, it ends up not being the truck’s fault.”
Speed remains the top cause of collisions on the roadway, Hahn explained. As Colorado and its roads get more crowded, “it’s important for other passenger vehicles to get the message, too.” In addition to maintaining safe speeds, that means other drivers need to take extra caution around commercial vehicles, whether behind, passing or in front of them.
Remember not only that commercial drivers have numerous blind spots alongside and behind their trailer, as well as in front of the cab, but also that commercial vehicles require a longer distance to stop, he said.
“Make sure you’re giving them enough distance,” Hahn said. “If you think you’re giving them enough distance, give them more.”
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