A Colorado State Patrol trooper deliberately drove his patrol car into a wrong-way vehicle on Interstate 76 near Fort Morgan early Sunday, stopping a driver who was headed straight into oncoming traffic before anyone else could be hurt. The trooper suffered minor injuries in the crash, and the driver, a 36-year-old Sterling woman, was arrested on suspicion of driving under the influence.
According to the Colorado State Patrol, the trooper responded to the area of I-76 near milepost 82 and Fort Morgan after reports of a vehicle traveling westbound in the eastbound lanes. As reported by KDVR, the trooper spotted the red Honda HR-V, activated his emergency lights, and then maneuvered his own vehicle to collide front-first with the oncoming car at roughly 2:20 a.m. Sunday. The impact brought the Honda to a stop, preventing it from slamming head-on into vehicles traveling in the correct direction.
The trooper was taken to a medical facility for evaluation and released the same day. The driver, identified as Claudia Z. Rodriguez of Sterling, was also taken to a hospital for medical evaluation before being arrested and booked into Morgan County Jail. She faces charges of driving under the influence of alcohol or drugs, reckless driving, having open alcohol containers in the vehicle, and failing to provide valid insurance upon request, per the same account.
A Split-Second Tactic With High Stakes
The maneuver, known as Tactical Vehicle Intervention, is a Colorado State Patrol protocol that allows troopers to intentionally make contact with an impaired or fleeing wrong-way driver when that driver poses an immediate danger of a fatal head-on crash with highway traffic, according to 9NEWS. Troopers are trained to weigh traffic volume and the immediacy of the threat before attempting the tactic, since it puts both the officer and the wrong-way driver at risk of injury. In this case, both people involved survived with what the agency described as manageable injuries.
The intervention came just a day after the Colorado State Patrol had announced active impaired driving enforcement, including DUI checkpoints reinstated in Fort Morgan and other rural communities on the Eastern Plains, as shown in a video posted by Marc Sallinger. Those checkpoints marked a return to a practice the agency had not run consistently in nearly a decade, according to the same footage.
Highway Closed For Hours During Investigation
Eastbound lanes of I-76 near Fort Morgan were shut down for more than four hours so troopers could investigate the scene, with the roadway reopening around 6:43 a.m. Sunday. The closure stretched between milepost 82 and nearby local highway access points, snarling early-morning traffic in the area.
If convicted, Rodriguez could face penalties under Colorado Revised Statutes § 42-4-1307, which sets first-offense DUI penalties at five days to one year in county jail, fines between $600 and $1,000, 48 to 96 hours of mandatory public service, and a nine-month driver's license revocation, per Bacharach Law. Those mandatory minimum jail sentences can be suspended if an offender completes required alcohol education and probation terms, the firm notes. It remains unclear whether additional charges could follow once toxicology results are finalized.
A Dangerous Stretch, A Dangerous Season
This is not the first time I-76 has seen a deadly wrong-way scare. In June 2025, a wrong-way pickup truck caused a head-on collision near Federal Boulevard in Adams County that killed one person and injured two others, according to KDVR. And in August 2014, a wrong-way crash on I-76 near Fort Morgan killed two local teenagers after their vehicle struck a highway barrier while traveling in opposing lanes; coroner reports at the time confirmed alcohol as a primary contributing factor, per CBS Colorado.
Sunday's incident also lands during what Colorado State Patrol crash statistics have identified as the most dangerous holiday stretch of the year for impaired driving injuries and fatalities: the Labor Day period spanning late August into early September, according to The Gold Law Firm. Statewide, lane departures remain the leading cause of fatal traffic crashes in Colorado, accounting for 342 of the 559 total road deaths recorded in 2023, per the Colorado Department of Transportation.
The state has also invested in technology meant to catch wrong-way drivers before troopers ever have to intervene. CDOT has installed thermal-sensor camera systems and electronic wrong-way warning signs along interstate corridors that can transmit automated alerts to state patrol dispatch within two to three seconds of detecting a wrong-way entry, according to CBS Colorado. Early pilot tests on Denver-area express ramps reportedly prompted several wrong-way drivers to turn around before reaching oncoming traffic. On I-76 near Fort Morgan Sunday, it was a trooper's own vehicle, not a camera or a sign, that ultimately stopped the danger.
