Auto Accident Regional Resources

Vehicle Collision With Fallen Bridge Girder in Colorado

Golden, Colorado - A 2002 Dodge Durango sport utility vehicle (SUV) driven by a 34-year-old man eastbound on I-70 approached the C–470 overpass. The driver’s 37-year-old wife and their 2-year-old child were also in the SUV. The interchange of I–70 and C–470 was in a temporary traffic control zone for a highway construction project, during which an additional entry ramp and two additional lanes were being constructed for the overpass.

As the SUV approached the overpass, a fabricated steel girder line composed of two joined sections, which had been erected during the evening through the early morning hours parallel to the existing overpass, as a part of the bridge-widening project, rotated toward the overpass and sagged into the I–70 eastbound lanes. The girder struck the SUV about half the distance between the vehicle’s front end and its windshield and sheared off the vehicle’s top. The lower portion of the SUV continued east for 818 feet, coming to rest in the grassy median of I–70. All three vehicle occupants were killed.

The Safety Board determines that the probable cause of the girder collapse in Golden, Colorado, during a highway bridge-widening project was the failure of the girder’s temporary bracing system due to insufficient planning by Ridge Erection Company, Inc., Asphalt Specialties, Inc., and the Colorado Department of Transportation, which were responsible for putting the girder and its bracing in place, and due to deficiencies in the installation of the girder and the bracing, so that the bracing ultimately failed to adequately secure the out-of-plumb girder to the existing bridge deck. Contributing to the accident were the lack of uniform, consistent bracing standards and the Colorado Department of Transportation’s narrow definition of falsework, which did not include lateral bracing. Also contributing to the accident was the failure of the Colorado Department of Transportation to effectively oversee safety-critical contract work for the project.

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