A well-worn playbook and incredible luck helped CDOT cleanup and open I-25 before the morning rush
It was a typical Wednesday, just a quarter till noon. Enrique “Henry” Dominguez was driving a fuel tanker and making his way through the traffic on Interstate 25. Then his tire blew.
Dominguez and the tanker — carrying 500 gallons of diesel fuel and 500 gallons of eight different oils — careened into the median, caught on fire and began spitting plumes of black smoke high into the sky near the Denver Tech Center.
It was a disaster, to be sure. But the combination of a well-practiced, timely response and an incredible number of coincidences turned what could have been deadly chaos into a manageable crisis that was cleaned up before morning rush hour.
“This is one of those times where the planets and the stars and everything lined up perfectly,” said Kevin Devine, Colorado Department of Transportation’s operations manager for I-25.
Image from body cam video.
Image from body cam video.
