Denver crash statistics and trends in 2026

Denver's Vision Zero dashboard counted 94 traffic deaths on city streets in 2025, and the tally already stood at 36 for 2026 when the page was last updated¹. Statewide, Colorado closed out 2025 with 701 traffic deaths, a 2% increase over 2024's 689, according to the Colorado Department of Transportation².

The way 2025 got there says almost as much as the final number. Through the first several months of the year, CDOT's preliminary data had statewide fatalities running 21% below the same period in 2024, a real improvement³. Then November and December turned unseasonably warm instead of cold, and deaths for those two months jumped 70% compared with the same stretch in 2024, with motorcycle fatalities alone up 167% during that window². A late-year surge wiped out months of progress in a matter of weeks.

Who is dying, and why

CDOT's year-end breakdown for 2025 lays out what's driving the statewide numbers:

• Passenger vehicle occupants: 392 deaths, up 5%
• Impaired driving: 235 deaths, up 11%
• Unbuckled occupants: 188 deaths
• Pedestrians: 126 deaths, up 5%
• Motorcyclists: 147 deaths, down 11%
• Bicyclists: 18 deaths, up 29%²

Impaired driving is one of the biggest single factors behind that list. Colorado State Patrol Chief Col. Matthew C. Packard has said impaired driving kills more than 200 Coloradans a year, and Denver County logged 22 impairment-related deaths in 2025, trailing only El Paso County (29) and Weld County (25)⁴. Speeding tells a similar story. It was blamed for 237 deaths statewide in 2024, the most recent year CDOT has broken out by cause, and Denver County's 23 speeding deaths that year ranked third among Colorado counties, behind Adams (32) and El Paso (25)⁵.

Those categories aren't abstractions on Denver-area highways. On November 26, 2025, state Sen. Faith Winter, a Broomfield Democrat serving her final term, died after the vehicle she was driving struck the rear of a stopped flatbed truck on northbound I-25 near the East Dry Creek Road exit in Arapahoe County. The truck reportedly had no visible taillights, but investigators still found Winter at fault, and her blood alcohol content was later determined to be 0.185%, more than double the legal limit⁶. Less than 24 hours later, a tanker truck sped down the southbound I-25 off-ramp at Yale Avenue without apparent braking, struck an overpass abutment near the Denver Tech Center, and ruptured, killing the driver and spilling fuel into storm drains. CBS News Colorado's report on that crash noted it marked the second fatal crash on that stretch of I-25 in two days⁷. In a separate incident on southbound I-25 near Yale Avenue, a pedestrian was struck and killed around 4 a.m. on a snowy Saturday morning, closing the highway from University Boulevard for more than three hours while police investigated⁸.

The roads that keep showing up

Denver's Vision Zero program has flagged Colfax Avenue and Federal Boulevard as two of the city's highest-risk corridors since at least 2019, when the city made them the first streets converted to LED street lighting under its High Injury Network plan. By the end of that year, crews had installed more than 30,500 of the roughly 44,000 fixtures being swapped citywide⁹.

Both streets keep showing up in the news for the same reasons the city flagged them years ago. On Federal Boulevard between 52nd and 67th avenues, CDOT put $2 million into medians, new signals, lighting, and crosswalks after years of street-racing complaints and a fatal crash that first drew attention to the corridor¹⁰. Farther south, Denver spent 2024 rebuilding the stretch of Federal between West 23rd and West 27th avenues with new pedestrian ramps, curb bulb-outs, and a HAWK signal at West 25th Avenue, funded through the Elevate Denver Bond and CDOT's Safer Main Streets program¹¹.

East Colfax Avenue carries the biggest single safety investment of the two corridors: a bus rapid transit line running from Broadway to Yosemite Street in Denver, continuing into Aurora as far as I-225, backed by a $150 million federal transit grant plus $75 million from the Elevate Denver Bond program. Construction started in October 2024 and is expected to run through 2027, and twelve intersections along the route are getting Vision Zero-style pedestrian treatments as part of the build¹². Separately, Denver's transportation department has already spent $120,000 upgrading 15 intersections along East Colfax with bollards, paint, mid-street pedestrian refuges, and what the city says is its first use of a hardened rubber centerline meant to slow left-turning drivers¹³.

Interstate corridors get their own share of attention, too. I-70's eastbound lanes near Peoria Street closed for several hours on the morning of August 8, 2025, after a driver struck and killed a pedestrian on the interstate¹⁴.

What Denver is doing, and what it means if you're hurt

Denver's Vision Zero office keeps directing lighting, signal, and street-redesign money toward the same handful of corridors because the crash pattern doesn't shift much from year to year: Colfax, Federal, and the interstates that cut through the city account for a disproportionate share of the serious and fatal crashes the city logs⁹. CDOT's statewide numbers point to the same two culprits, impaired and speeding drivers, showing up again and again in the fatal-crash data even as the roads themselves get rebuilt²⁵.

If you've been hurt in a crash on one of these corridors, the road's history can matter to your case. A crash at an intersection the city has already flagged for its high-injury network, or on a stretch CDOT has funded for safety upgrades, can be relevant to how fault and damages get argued, especially if a design issue or a known hazard played a role alongside the other driver's conduct. An attorney who handles Denver-area crash cases can help sort out how much of that applies to your situation. You can find one through thatcarhitme.com's legal directory.

This is general information, not legal advice.

Sources

1. Vision Zero Statistics, City and County of Denver: https://www.denvergov.org/Government/Citywide-Programs-and-Initiatives/Vision-Zero/Statistics

2. Warm weather coincides with increase in traffic deaths in 2025, Colorado Department of Transportation: https://www.codot.gov/news/2026/january/increased-traffic-deaths-2025

3. Colorado traffic fatalities down 21% this year, Colorado Department of Transportation: https://www.codot.gov/news/2025/april/colorado-traffic-fatalities-down-21-percent

4. El Paso, Weld, Denver and Adams counties had highest number of impairment traffic fatalities in 2025, Colorado Department of Transportation: https://www.codot.gov/news/2026/february-2026-news/counties-with-highest-number-impairment-traffic-fatalities-2025

5. Speeding claimed 237 lives on Colorado roads last year, Colorado Department of Transportation: https://www.codot.gov/news/2025/august/speeding-claimed-237-lives-colorado-last-year

6. Investigators determine Colorado state Sen. Faith Winter was driving drunk, caused fatal crash, CBS News Colorado: https://www.cbsnews.com/colorado/news/colorado-state-sen-faith-winter-driving-drunk-fatal-crash

7. Fatal tanker truck crash spreads fuel beneath I-25 in Denver, CBS News Colorado: https://www.cbsnews.com/colorado/news/denver-fatal-crash-tanker-fuel-spill/

8. Pedestrian killed in I-25 crash near Yale Ave., Denver7: https://www.denver7.com/news/local-news/pedestrian-killed-in-i-25-crash-near-yale-ave

9. Safety Improvements, Vision Zero, City and County of Denver: https://www.denvergov.org/content/denvergov/en/vision-zero/safety-projects.html

10. CDOT taking action to stop street racing on stretch of Federal Boulevard, CBS News Colorado: https://cbsnews.com/colorado/news/cdot-taking-action-to-stop-street-racing-on-stretch-of-federal-boulevard

11. North Federal Boulevard Pedestrian Safety Project, City and County of Denver: https://denvergov.org/Government/Agencies-Departments-Offices/Agencies-Departments-Offices-Directory/Department-of-Transportation-and-Infrastructure/Programs-Services/Projects/Federal-23rd-Ave-Improvements

12. East Colfax Avenue Bus Rapid Transit, City and County of Denver: https://www.denvergov.org/Government/Agencies-Departments-Offices/Agencies-Departments-Offices-Directory/Department-of-Transportation-and-Infrastructure/Programs-Services/Projects/Colfax-BRT

13. Denver invests $120,000 in safety improvements on East Colfax Avenue, CBS News Colorado: https://cbsnews.com/colorado/news/denver-safety-improvements-colfax-ave

14. Denver police investigate deadly crash involving pedestrian on I-70 near Peoria, CBS News Colorado: https://www.cbsnews.com/colorado/news/denver-police-investigate-deadly-crash-pedestrian-i-70-near-peoria