A 45-year-old man was struck and killed by a hit-and-run driver while crossing back and forth through traffic on the Interstate 270 exit ramp to Interstate 76 in Commerce City on Thursday night, and the driver who hit him has still not been found. A second vehicle later struck the man's body on the ramp after he was already dead, but that driver stayed at the scene and cooperated with investigators.
According to The Denver Post, witnesses told Colorado State Patrol that the man was “going back and forth across the roadway” before he was hit. Investigators have not said why he was on the exit ramp, and they have not released a description of the vehicle that struck and killed him. The man was publicly identified Friday, per the same report.
The timeline of the crash is still coming into focus. Colorado State Patrol troopers were initially dispatched just before 8:30 p.m. Thursday to a report of a pedestrian running in front of vehicles on I-270, but when they arrived, Adams County deputies were already on scene with the man's body, according to the Denver Gazette. That account indicates a report of a pedestrian moving through live traffic came in before the man's body was actually located, meaning the initial hit-and-run happened sometime in between.
What Colorado Law Demands of Drivers Who Flee
Whoever hit the man first now faces potential prosecution under Colorado Revised Statutes Section 42-4-1601, which classifies leaving the scene of a fatal crash as a Class 3 felony. Per Justia, that charge carries a presumptive state prison sentence of four to 12 years, fines that can reach $750,000, and mandatory revocation of the driver's license. Colorado's hit-and-run statute does not hinge on who caused the crash in the first place — it hinges on whether a driver stopped, remained, and rendered aid, a legal distinction that matters here since fault in the initial collision has not been established.
A Corridor With a Troubled Safety Record
The stretch of highway where the man died is no stranger to danger. A Draft Environmental Impact Statement from the Colorado Department of Transportation, reported by Colorado Politics in November 2025, found that I-270 sees roughly 42 crashes per mile per year, about 40% higher than comparable four-lane freeways in the state, with narrow shoulders and tight interchange ramps cited as contributing factors. The highway carries more than 100,000 vehicles a day through Commerce City, with freight trucks making up as much as a fifth of that traffic, according to Westword's coverage of CDOT's planned $800 million corridor overhaul, with major construction targeted for 2027.
This is not the first fatal hit-and-run tied to this stretch of road. In January, Commerce City police arrested a 22-year-old driver on I-270 on vehicular homicide and hit-and-run charges after he crashed into an RV, fled, switched vehicles, and was later pulled over for speeding while carrying a deceased passenger, per 9News. Hoodline has also tracked a street racer fleeing cops and reported on a homicide charge tied to a fatal crash elsewhere in the city this year.
Pedestrian Deaths Climbing Statewide
Thursday's death lands amid a broader surge in pedestrian fatalities across Colorado. The Colorado Department of Transportation reported in March that 127 pedestrians were killed on state roadways in 2025, a 98.4% increase over 2015 levels, now accounting for nearly one in five traffic deaths statewide. Adams County, home to Commerce City, recorded 99 pedestrian fatalities between 2020 and 2025, ranking second among Colorado's 64 counties behind only Denver County, per the same CDOT data.
CDOT figures also show that between 2021 and 2025, 65% of pedestrian fatalities occurred in dark conditions and 68% happened outside marked crosswalks — both risk factors that align with a nighttime crossing on a highway exit ramp. Nationally, nearly one in four pedestrians killed in traffic crashes in 2023 was struck by a driver who fled, according to National Highway Traffic Safety Administration figures cited by state transportation officials. Preliminary 2025 data also showed total road deaths in Colorado climbed to 701, up from 689 the year before, reversing two straight years of declines.
Investigators have not released any suspect description or vehicle details in connection with the driver who struck the man and failed to stop. Anyone with information has not yet been given a specific tip line in available reporting, and the circumstances that put the man on the exit ramp remain unexplained.
