A young girl was killed Thursday afternoon when she was thrown from an SUV during a violent rollover on northbound Interstate 25, about eight miles north of Walsenburg, according to the Colorado State Patrol.
The crash happened around 3:15 p.m. on a northbound curve when a 2024 Jeep Compass lost control, veered off the left side of the highway and plowed through multiple road signs. Investigators say a rear door was damaged and swung open, ejecting the juvenile girl, who was pronounced dead at the scene.
A juvenile boy and the 31-year-old woman driving the Jeep were taken to area hospitals with unknown injuries, and troopers shut down all northbound lanes at milepost 60 for roughly three hours while they worked the scene and documented evidence.
According to The Denver Post, troopers identified the SUV as a 2024 Jeep Compass and said the driver, a 31-year-old woman, was hospitalized with undetermined injuries. The Post reported that the impact damaged the Jeep's rear door, which opened and led to the girl being ejected from the vehicle. The Colorado State Patrol has said the cause of the wreck remains under investigation.
Authorities reopened the northbound lanes at the milepost 60 closure by 6:35 p.m., easing what had been a significant traffic backup. Troopers remained on scene into the evening while crash investigators finished processing the wreck. The State Patrol has not released any additional detail about why the vehicle left the roadway.
I-25's dangerous stretch south of Pueblo
Thursday's fatal crash is the latest in a string of serious wrecks along southern Colorado's stretch of I-25, a corridor that has been anything but forgiving this season.
On Feb. 17, a massive brown-out pileup south of Pueblo killed multiple people and involved dozens of vehicles. The Denver Gazette reported that the earlier chain-reaction crash, which troopers blamed on sudden dust and high winds, involved 36 vehicles and left at least 29 people injured. In the wake of that disaster, emergency crews urged drivers to treat the corridor with extra caution.
The recent pattern of wrecks has pushed the Colorado Department of Transportation and the State Patrol to repeatedly highlight wind restrictions and travel advisories on I-25, particularly across the exposed stretches south of Pueblo.
Troopers reiterate safety steps for wind and dust
With high winds and dust storms still in the forecast for parts of southern Colorado, troopers and CDOT are again pressing drivers to check conditions before heading out and to avoid stopping in active travel lanes if visibility suddenly collapses.
As reported by KRDO, officials say motorists should immediately slow down, turn on headlights and, if at all possible, exit the highway and park well off the roadway until the dust clears. They also recommend checking CoTrip and local alert systems before driving through southern Colorado's higher-risk stretches of I-25.
