A 17-year-old boy driving the wrong way on Interstate 70 near Rifle slammed head-on into an SUV driven by an 18-year-old girl just before dawn, killing both teenagers at the scene. The crash, which happened around 2:36 a.m. near mile marker 93 east of Rifle, also involved a semitrailer and shut down the westbound lanes of the highway for hours during the investigation.
According to The Denver Gazette, Colorado State Patrol troopers say the 17-year-old was driving a 2022 Subaru the wrong direction in the left westbound lane of I-70 when it hit a 2004 GMC Yukon driven by the 18-year-old head-on. Both teens were pronounced dead at the scene, troopers said in a Monday news release cited by the newspaper. The Yukon had reportedly been passing a 2026 Peterbilt semitrailer, driven by a 35-year-old man, when the Subaru struck it; the Yukon then struck the trailer being hauled by the semi, the paper reported. The semi driver was not injured, according to the release.
Investigation Underway, Names Withheld
As of Monday afternoon, the cause of the crash had not been determined, the Gazette's report noted, and the Colorado State Patrol's vehicular crimes unit is investigating. The Garfield County Coroner will release the teenagers' names once next-of-kin have been notified and autopsies are complete, per the same account. The westbound lanes of I-70, which were temporarily closed during the investigation, reopened by 8 a.m. Sunday.
The crash occurred at 2:36 a.m. Sunday. Under Colorado's graduated licensing rules, minor drivers under 18 are barred from operating a vehicle between midnight and 5 a.m. during their first year of licensure unless accompanied by a parent or guardian, commuting to school or work, or facing a medical emergency, according to Colorado legislative records.
A Familiar and Growing Danger on I-70
Wrong-way crashes have become an increasingly common and deadly problem across Colorado. Colorado State Patrol responded to 116 wrong-way driving crashes statewide in 2024, an increase of nearly 20% compared to the year before, according to KUNC. The outlet also reported that a wrong-way driver caused a head-on collision in May 2025 on I-70 near New Castle that killed three people at Mile Post 106.
Sunday's crash is not the first fatal wrong-way collision Hoodline has covered on this stretch of highway this year. In July, a fiery wrong-way I-70 crash near Loma in Mesa County killed a driver and snarled traffic for hours, and in April, a wrong-way drunk driver in Jefferson County was sentenced to 12 years in prison after a fatal I-70 crash in Wheat Ridge.
Infrastructure and Legal Stakes
The Colorado Department of Transportation completed a $2.2 million project in 2021 installing wrong-way detection systems and upgraded signage at 87 off-ramp locations along I-70 across Summit, Eagle, Garfield, and Mesa counties, according to the Colorado Department of Transportation. Despite that investment, wrong-way crashes can still be deadly.
Separately, Colorado's vehicular homicide statute, C.R.S. § 18-3-106, classifies the offense as a Class 4 felony carrying two to six years in prison if investigators determine the crash was caused by reckless driving; if impairment by alcohol or drugs is found to be a factor, the charge escalates to a Class 3 felony carrying four to 12 years, according to the MBS Law article. The cause of Sunday's crash remains undetermined.
