Tens of thousands of visitors flocked to the Colorado Rocky Mountains over the Fourth of July weekend despite a deadly crash that closed Interstate 70, snarling traffic for hours ahead of the holiday.

Just over 170,000 vehicles traveled through I-70‘s Eisenhower-Johnson Memorial Tunnels from Thursday, July 3, through Sunday, July 6, according to the Colorado Department of Transportation.

That includes about 38,800 vehicles that traveled through the tunnels July 3, the same day the fatal crash closed westbound travel in the area for 5.5 hours and eastbound travel for about two hours, CDOT Mountain Corridor Communications Manager Austyn Dineen said. (In July 2024, the tunnels saw an average daily total of about 42,000.)

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Despite the closures, traffic counters recorded slightly more than 23,000 vehicles going through the westbound tunnel and just shy of 15,800 vehicles headed through the eastbound tunnel July 3, Dineen said. Transportation officials on July 3 told travelers to wait out the closures in Denver and expect “extremely long delays.”

The crash, which killed a man and his dog, not only closed I-70 in both directions near the tunnels for hours, but traffic backups also closed U.S. Highway 40, a popular detour when I-70 is closed, she said.

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Statewide, the Colorado transportation officials documented at least four crashes that resulted in fatalities over the Fourth of July weekend, according to a news release.

Colorado State Patrol trooper Hunter Mathews said the fatal crash July 3 occurred around 1 p.m. when a Dodge Ram 3000 headed westbound in the rightmost lane of I-70 collided with a semitractor-trailer parked on the right shoulder just outside the tunnels.

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The pickup truck rolled one time before it was engulfed in flames, resulting in the death of the 40-year-old driver and his dog, Mathews said. The driver of the semitractor had no injuries, he said.

Another fatal crash occurred Saturday, July 5, when a bicyclist competing in the KowTown Gravel bike race out of Kremmling collided with a pickup truck pulling a trailer on U.S. Highway 40 near Mile Marker 916, according to the Colorado State Patrol.

The bicyclist disregarded a stop sign as he made a left onto the highway from Grand County Road 309, Mathews said. The man — identified by the Grand County Coroner’s Office as a 62-year-old Boulder man — was ejected from his bike after colliding with the passenger door of the pickup truck, he said. Officials declared him dead on scene.

Mathews said neither excessive speeds nor impairment are suspected to have played a role in the fatal crash.

The two other fatal crashes that occurred over the weekend involved a motorist who was struck and killed while changing their tire on Interstate 25 and a pedestrian who was struck by a vehicle on U.S. Highway 50 in Delta County, according to the Colorado State Patrol.

Following the series of deadly crashes, state transportation officials called on drivers to put safety first when behind the wheel. The Colorado Department of Transportation reminded the public never to drive impaired, to avoid distractions and to buckle up. Speed, impairment and failure to use seatbelts are top factors in fatal crashes in Colorado, according to the news release.

“This holiday weekend, Colorado roads became the scene of preventable tragedies,” CDOT acting Executive Director Sally Chaffee said in a statement. “We witnessed multiple fatalities statewide.”

More than one Colorado mountain town reported slight delays to July 3 events due to the fatal crash on I-70 that caused hourslong traffic impacts.

Frisco communications director Vanessa Agee said in an email that a free Concert in the Park event scheduled for 5:30 p.m. July 3 was postponed two hours because it took the band 7.5 hours to get from Denver to Summit County due to the “tragic accident” on I-70.

Magic Beans guitarist Scott Hachey said that when his band did eventually make it up to Frisco to perform, “People were pumped to boogie” though the delay lessened the crowd size.

Avon chief cultural officer Danita Dempsey said she also thinks that the traffic delays had a “small impact” on attendance levels at the town’s Salute to the USA event at Harry A. Nottingham Park on July 3.

Both the headliner and the supporting acts for the event got stuck in traffic due to the I-70 closure, Dempsey said. She said the acts kicked off about 15 minutes later than planned but after that “all went off without a hitch.”

Following the Fourth of July holiday, another vehicle fire on I-70 also led to significant delays, this time for eastbound traffic. State Patrol trooper Mathews said eastbound I-70 closed near Exit 244 to Beaver Brook around 3:20 p.m. July 5 after a semitrailer’s back wheels caught fire. Around 4:40 p.m., the left lane reopened to traffic and eastbound I-70 was completely reopened at 9:30 p.m., he said.