Earlier this year, more than a dozen overturned and spun-out semi trucks caused a multi-hour delay on I-70, which caught the attention of Vail Mayor Travis Coggin. At a town council meeting in January, Coggin told fellow council members that he wanted the state to raise the $500 fine for violating chain laws to $20,000.
“Five hundred bucks clearly does not change anyone's mind,” Coggin told CPR News earlier this year. “So I threw out $20,000 just because it's a big number. I'm not saying that's the right number, but what we have currently clearly isn't a deterrent. And it's something we need to address for the safety of our community and just for interstate commerce and traffic and quality of life.”
Tuesday evening the town council unanimously voted to approve an “emergency ordinance” that imposes fines of $1,500 for drivers caught driving on Vail Pass without chains in the winter months—three times the standard statewide fine. The ordinance very much mirrors Colorado’s current state-wide Chain Law, including a penalty for commercial vehicles that block Vail Pass due to not using chains when the chain law is in effect. That penalty increases to $2,650—more than double the state’s current penalty of $1,000 for similar offenses.
The move comes after longstanding frustration with I-70 gridlock and what Vail officials see as inaction from the state.
However, truck drivers say the solution shouldn’t be higher fines. They argue Colorado already has the highest fines in the country, compared to other states, for breaking chain laws. They say the problem lies more with a lack of driver education on how to properly install chains, a lack of safe chain-up stations on I-70, and poor communication practices between state enforcement and truck drivers on when the chain law should go into effect.
According to Tommy Lee, a 20-year truck driver veteran, Colorado is doing the “bare minimum” in the way of helping truck drivers be successful on the roads in the winter months.
“We get people from out of state that aren't familiar with this highway or what can happen up here,” Lee said. “Some of them, it's laziness; some of them don't know how [to put chains on] or they don't even have the chains. I just wish the state would do more around education.”
Last month, a group of bipartisan Colorado lawmakers from the Western Slope proposed a bill that would allow private companies to sell and install chains along mountain highways.
In the letter to Gov. Jared Polis, Coggin acknowledged a recent update to the state’s traction laws, which now require all drivers—not just commercial ones—to carry proper winter equipment—such as snow tires, chains, or all-season tires. But he argued that Colorado’s penalties were still far too low to deter drivers from ignoring safety requirements.
“The State of Colorado’s current penalties are clearly still an inadequate deterrent for those who will ignore speed limits, lane restrictions and chain-up requirements and put others at risk for the sake of saving a few minutes on the road,” the letter reads.
But the response from Polis’ office didn’t offer the sweeping changes Coggin had hoped for.
“The Governor is open to increasing the penalties for anyone ignoring our chain laws which keep us all safe on the highway; however, that change would need to occur through the state legislature,” a spokesperson from Gov. Polis’s office told CPR News in a statement.
According to Coggin, the governor’s initial response was “underwhelming.” And while the ordinance wasn’t as steep as the mayor’s original proposal, he hopes that drivers will start paying attention.
“We decided to take matters into our own hands,” Coggin said.
