{"id":1381772,"date":"2018-12-10T17:13:00","date_gmt":"2018-12-11T00:13:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kkch\/local-news\/can-a-hashtag-make-driving-vail-pass-more-safe-during-the-winter-months\/"},"modified":"2018-12-10T17:13:00","modified_gmt":"2018-12-11T00:13:00","slug":"can-a-hashtag-make-driving-vail-pass-more-safe-during-the-winter-months","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kkch\/local-news\/can-a-hashtag-make-driving-vail-pass-more-safe-during-the-winter-months\/","title":{"rendered":"Can a hashtag make driving Vail Pass more safe during the winter months?"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Scott Miller<\/a><\/span> EAGLE COUNTY \u2014 Government officials can’t say it this way, but bald tires suck. That’s the thrust of a new campaign aimed at educating those who drive Interstate 70 in the winter.
\nThe I-70 Coalition \u2014 a group of local governments and businesses \u2014 along with the Colorado Public Interest Research Group last week launched the #BaldTiresSuck public information campaign to encourage motorists to pay more attention to the equipment they use to come for winter adventure groups.
\nThe idea is that bald or inadequate tires are a safety hazard in snowy or icy conditions. And, in this case, “bald” doesn’t necessarily mean that all the tread on a tire has worn off. In fact, just minimal tread can be hazardous to the safety of drivers and those around them.
\nThe safe legal minimum in Colorado is about 1\/16th of an inch. Most of us don’t have tread depth gauges, so the simple way to explain that depth uses a quarter and George Washington’s head. Stick a quarter, head down, into a tire’s tread. If the tread covers any part of Washington’s head, the tires are legally safe.
\nBut “legally safe” and “safe” are two different things. In fact, almost all vehicles will be safer to drive with dedicated winter tires.
\nDedicated winter tires can be expensive. A set of four winter tires for a mid-sized or large vehicle can easily cost several hundred dollars.
\nBut I-70 Coalition Director Margaret Bowes said it can be sobering to compare the cost of a set of tires with the cost of a road-closing accident.
\n“The average cost of a tow is about $200,” just to pull a car back on the road, Bowes said. In addition, if a vehicle with inadequate tires ends up closing a lane of traffic, the maximum fine is $650.
\nBowes said there are options for those who don’t want to spend the needed money on good winter tires.
\nThe Colorado Department of Transportation’s Bustang bus service runs into the mountains from the Denver Metro area. Bowes also said that car-pooling is a good option
\nIn the case of Vail Pass, a relatively narrow stretch of interstate, closing one lane actually means closing both lanes, even in the event of a no-injury accident. The Colorado State Patrol will close both lanes of the highway so emergency responders can work more safely.
\nWorking accident scenes can be dangerous, especially in the winter. Local fire departments have all had trucks seriously damaged by motorists driving through accident zones.
\nVail’s fire department responds to a lot of accidents on the pass. Vail Fire Chief Mark Novak said this winter has been “about average” in terms of how often crews are called to accident scenes.
\nBut, he added, the Colorado Department of Transportation a few years ago started closing the highway for shorter periods in order to stay ahead of snowfall before the combination of weather and traffic cause longer delays.
\nTransportation department spokeswoman Tracy Trulove said the safety closure policy has led to more road closures \u2014 91 in 2017. …read more<\/a> <\/p>\n

Via:: Vail Daily<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

EAGLE COUNTY \u2014 Government officials can’t say it this way, but bald tires suck. That’s the thrust of a new campaign aimed at educating those who drive Interstate 70 in the winter.
\nThe I-70 Coalition \u2014 a group of local governments and businesses \u2014 along with the Colorado Public Interest Research Group last week launched the #BaldTiresSuck public information campaign to encourage motorists to pay more attention to the equipment they use to come for winter adventure groups.
\nThe idea is that bald or inadequate tires are a safety hazard in snowy or icy conditions. And, in this case, “bald” doesn’t necessarily mean that all the tread on a tire has worn off. In fact, just minimal tread can be hazardous to the safety of drivers and those around them.
\nThe safe legal minimum in Colorado is about 1\/16th of an inch. Most of us don’t have tread depth gauges, so the simple way to explain that depth uses a quarter and George Washington’s head. Stick a quarter, head down, into a tire’s tread. If the tread covers any part of Washington’s head, the tires are legally safe.
\nBut “legally safe” and “safe” are two different things. In fact, almost all vehicles will be safer to drive with dedicated winter tires.
\nDedicated winter tires can be expensive. A set of four winter tires for a mid-sized or large vehicle can easily cost several hundred dollars.
\nBut I-70 Coalition Director Margaret Bowes said it can be sobering to compare the cost of a set of tires with the cost of a road-closing accident.
\n“The average cost of a tow is about $200,” just to pull a car back on the road, Bowes said. In addition, if a vehicle with inadequate tires ends up closing a lane of traffic, the maximum fine is $650.
\nBowes said there are options for those who don’t want to spend the needed money on good winter tires.
\nThe Colorado Department of Transportation’s Bustang bus service runs into the mountains from the Denver Metro area. Bowes also said that car-pooling is a good option
\nIn the case of Vail Pass, a relatively narrow stretch of interstate, closing one lane actually means closing both lanes, even in the event of a no-injury accident. The Colorado State Patrol will close both lanes of the highway so emergency responders can work more safely.
\nWorking accident scenes can be dangerous, especially in the winter. Local fire departments have all had trucks seriously damaged by motorists driving through accident zones.
\nVail’s fire department responds to a lot of accidents on the pass. Vail Fire Chief Mark Novak said this winter has been “about average” in terms of how often crews are called to accident scenes.
\nBut, he added, the Colorado Department of Transportation a few years ago started closing the highway for shorter periods in order to stay ahead of snowfall before the combination of weather and traffic cause longer delays.
\nTransportation department spokeswoman Tracy Trulove said the safety closure policy has led to more road closures \u2014 91 in 2017. …read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[112],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-1381772","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-local-news"},"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-08-07 00:43:57","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"distributor_meta":false,"distributor_terms":false,"distributor_media":false,"distributor_original_site_name":"KKCH - The Lift FM","distributor_original_site_url":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kkch","push-errors":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kkch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1381772","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kkch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kkch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kkch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kkch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1381772"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kkch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1381772\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kkch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1381772"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kkch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1381772"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kkch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1381772"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}