[08-15-26] Two Motorists Hospitalized After Crash Snarls I-25 at West Colfax in Denver

Two motorists were taken to a local hospital early Thursday after a traffic crash near West Colfax Avenue and Interstate 25 in Denver, according to police. The Denver Police Department said it is investigating the collision, which caused delays in the area, and advised drivers to seek alternate routes while crews worked the scene.

The crash, first reported before 2:30 a.m., involved two motorists, according to a Crash Alert posted by the Denver Police Dept. on social media. The department noted that it only issues these public bulletins when at least one person involved sustains serious injuries or when a crash forces road closures, a threshold that signals investigators are treating this incident as a serious one. No further details on the drivers’ identities, the vehicles involved, or a possible cause have been released.

The interchange connecting West Colfax Avenue to I-25 has a long, troubled history. It’s far from the first time this stretch of highway has turned into a scene of chaos and gridlock, and Thursday’s crash adds to a growing list of serious collisions there.

A Dangerous Stretch With a Track Record

Just last month, a two-vehicle wreck on northbound I-25 at West Colfax hospitalized one person with serious injuries and choked traffic for miles past Broadway and 6th Avenue, according to Denver Personal Injury Lawyers. And in the summer of 2025, police shut down all northbound lanes of I-25 at Colfax entirely, diverting traffic onto Auraria Parkway after another serious injury collision at the same interchange, as reported by 9News.

The pattern isn’t a coincidence of geography. Colfax Avenue is officially part of Denver’s High Injury Network under the city’s Vision Zero Action Plan, placing it among the roughly 5% of city streets that account for about half of all traffic fatalities and serious injuries citywide, according to the City and County of Denver. That designation has driven real investment: in June 2024, Denver’s Department of Transportation and Infrastructure broke ground on a $15.5 million safety project along West Colfax, funded by city bonds and state grants, to install landscaped medians and curb extensions meant to reduce severe crashes, Westword reported. Earlier signal-timing and pedestrian-safety changes along the corridor had already produced a 39% drop in serious injury crashes, per that same reporting.

A Rough Stretch for Denver Roadways

Despite those efforts, the broader trend across Denver has been grim. The city recorded 93 traffic fatalities in 2025, the highest annual total since it adopted its Vision Zero strategy, and had already logged 29 traffic deaths by mid-June this year, according to Barchart. Zoom out further, and the numbers get starker: across the eight-county Denver region, 1,564 people were killed and more than 9,500 seriously injured in roughly 9,608 severe collisions between 2020 and 2024, per the Denver Regional Council of Governments, which has set a regional goal of eliminating traffic deaths by 2040.

The interchange itself is nearly as old as the interstate system running through it. The West Colfax viaduct linking Colfax Avenue to I-25 opened to traffic in January 1963 as part of the original Valley Highway project, according to the Colorado Department of Transportation, and it remains a key gateway between downtown Denver and the western side of the city. The aging concrete structure has long been the subject of urban planning studies exploring potential reconfigurations.

What Comes Next

If investigators determine a driver left the scene of a crash resulting in serious bodily injury, Colorado law treats that as a Class 4 felony under Colorado Revised Statutes § 42-4-1601, carrying two to six years in state prison and fines up to $500,000, per FindLaw. Separately, if impairment is found to have caused serious bodily injury to another person, prosecutors could pursue vehicular assault charges under Colorado Revised Statutes § 18-3-205, also a Class 4 felony punishable by two to six years in prison, according to Welsh Law. There is no indication in the police alert that either statute applies to Thursday’s crash; DPD has not released information about fault or possible impairment.

This is only the latest in a string of serious crashes Hoodline has covered along the Colfax corridor in recent months, including a hit-and-run that badly hurt a cyclist earlier this week.

Source : Hoodline