Travis Legal Offices represents crash victims on I-25 through Larkspur, on Greenland Road, on Perry Park Avenue, on Spruce Mountain Road, and on every road in this community. Our Castle Rock office is 15 miles north. We have litigated in the 23rd Judicial District for over 26 years, and we have handled I-25 Gap corridor cases throughout the history of this dangerous stretch. If you were injured on I-25 near Larkspur, you need an attorney who does not just understand interstate crash litigation. You need one who understands this specific 18 miles of interstate and why it has been killing people for decades.
It was a normal occurrence for a crash to take place on the stretch of Interstate 25 in Larkspur nearly each and every day prior to the widening of the highway as part of the $419 million I-25 Gap Project. Prior to the project, CDOT documented 5,537 crashes along the entire length of the corridor between C-470 and Colorado Springs. In comparison to pre-project time frames, the number of crashes increased by 62% during the construction period. A six vehicle crash occurring between exits 167 and 172 (Greenland to Upper Lake Gulch Rd.) resulted in the death of one person and seven others were hospitalized. As a result of the construction delays, the fire department of Larkspur Fire Protection District experienced a increase in the amount of time it took to respond to emergencies. This district protects 100 sq. mi. of area with limited equipment. The average emergency response time of the Larkspur Fire Department went from 13.5 minutes to 21 minutes while under construction. Fire officials made public statements expressing concern over the possibility of fatalities resulting from the longer response times.
The I-25 Gap Project is now complete. The section of I-25 that passes through Larkspur now includes six lanes and express toll lanes that began charging drivers in January 2024. However, the basic problems associated with this corridor remain in existence. Larkspur is located at an elevation of 6,726 ft. on the Palmer Divide, where the elevation creates extreme weather conditions such as blizzards, high wind gusts, black ice and fog that no lane additions will be able to prevent. Additionally, on weekends alone, this corridor may see as many as 87,000 vehicles per day. Semi-truck traffic continues to travel the steep grade reducing their speed creating hazardous speed differences with passenger traffic. When a crash occurs in the Larkspur section of I-25, the same time delay in response remains; there are no hospitals in Larkspur, there are no police departments in Larkspur, and the closest trauma center is 15 miles north of Larkspur in Castle Rock.
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The I-25 “Gap” refers to the 18-mile stretch between Monument (mile marker 161) and south of Castle Rock (mile marker 182) that was historically the most dangerous segment of interstate in Colorado. Larkspur sits almost exactly in the middle of it, at approximately mile marker 170. Before the Gap Project, this stretch was a four-lane highway carrying volumes that overwhelmed its capacity. CDOT’s data showed 5,537 crashes from 2011 to 2015 on this corridor. Two-thirds were rear-end collisions. Congestion, high speeds, climbing grades, and the Palmer Divide’s severe weather combined to produce a crash density that justified a $419 million widening project.
Construction began in September 2018 and finished in November 2022. The project added two express toll lanes, rebuilt five bridges, installed four wildlife crossings, added 28 miles of deer fencing, and built truck climbing lanes near Monument Hill. Express lane tolling launched in January 2024 with dynamic pricing from $1.50 to $5.50. The completed project is an improvement. But CDOT’s own I-25 PEL study acknowledges that “congestion, high speeds and climbing grades contribute to severe crashes, and can lead to long periods of highway closures.” The lanes are wider. The fundamental forces that produce crashes, speed, elevation, weather, and the interaction between heavy trucks and passenger vehicles on steep grades, remain.
The Interstate 25 (I-25) at Exit 167 is a reported crash hotspot and is a high-pressure point when I-25 is shut down due to a major crash. When there is a significant crash on I-25 through the Larkspur area, it causes traffic to be diverted onto Greenland Road, a rural two-lane highway that was never intended to handle large volumes of interstate traffic. The rapid diversion of thousands of vehicles onto a roadway originally designed for local and ranching traffic produces additional secondary crashes as well: stop-and-go conditions result in secondary rear-end collisions; intersections experience conflicts where diverted motorists do not recognize the traffic control devices and fail to yield; and pedestrians are placed at risk when motorists become frustrated and exit their vehicles during extended delays.
The closure of a major crash on northbound I-25 at milepost 170 near the Greenland exit demonstrates that the interchange area is a focal point for both the primary I-25 crashes and the secondary crash patterns created by the disruptions caused by those earlier crashes. When investigating a crash occurring in the Larkspur area, we consider whether the crash was a primary incident, or a secondary event resulting from the disruption to traffic flow from a previous crash. Secondary crashes create different issues of liability. If you were involved in a rear-end collision while stopped in congested traffic on Greenland Road due to a prior I-25 closure and diversion, then the driver who struck you bears the initial responsibility, however, the conditions that required you to divert onto Greenland Road are important contextual factors that the jury should be aware of.
Express Toll Lanes Opened Through the Gap Corridor In January 2024, Dynamic Pricing Was Implemented In May 2025; The Express Toll Lanes Created New Crash Dynamics. The speed differences on the toll lane express lanes, as compared to the general-purpose lanes, create hazardous conditions for merging at the entry and exit points of the express lane system. A vehicle in the express lane, operating at 75 miles per hour, will experience a 30 mile-per-hour speed differential when merging into general purpose traffic, moving at 45 miles per hour, during a period of congestion. The significant speed differential, compressed into a very short transition area, creates sideswipes and rear end type crashes commonly found in managed lane systems across the country.
The toll lanes also create an economic incentive effect. Those choosing not to pay the toll stay in the general purpose lanes, and these lanes become congested during peak periods at higher levels of volume than existed before the project due to the fact that all of the capacity has been diverted from the general-purpose lanes to the express toll lanes. A driver stuck in congested general-purpose traffic next to a clearly visible express lane, where vehicles are passing by at much greater speeds, will likely make an impulsive decision to change lanes creating potential crash opportunities in the buffer zone between the two separate traffic streams. It will take some time to document these crash types in published data; however, Travis Legal Offices is monitoring the situation.
The I-25 Gap corridor through Larkspur recorded 5,537 crashes from 2011 to 2015 before the $419 million widening project. During construction, crashes increased 62%. The corridor carries up to 87,000 vehicles on weekend days. Larkspur Fire Protection District response times averaged 21 minutes during construction, up from 13.5 minutes. Fire officials warned publicly that delayed response could cause deaths. Sources: CDOT; Colorado State Patrol; Larkspur Fire Protection District.
The Colorado Renaissance Festival has been held at 650 Perry Park Avenue in Larkspur since 1976. It runs for eight weekends every summer, featuring jousting, over 100 artisan booths, 10 stages, and more than 100,000 attendees across the season. It is one of the most popular annual events in the state. And for eight weekends per year, it transforms the roads around Larkspur from lightly traveled rural corridors into gridlocked parking lots.
Larkspur’s incorporated population is 218 people. The Renaissance Festival draws more visitors in a single weekend than the town’s population by a factor of 50 or more. The traffic converges on I-25 Exit 172 (Upper Lake Gulch Road), Spruce Mountain Road, Perry Park Avenue, and Tomah Road, all of which are two-lane roads designed for rural residential traffic. The Douglas County Sheriff’s Office implements road closures during festival weekends to manage the flow, but closures redirect traffic onto alternate routes that are equally unprepared for the volume.
Festival-weekend crashes fall into predictable categories: rear-end collisions in stop-and-go traffic on roads with no turn lanes, intersection crashes where festival-bound drivers unfamiliar with the area run stop signs or misjudge right-of-way, pedestrian-vehicle conflicts in improvised parking areas and along roadside shoulders, and I-25 crashes caused by the sudden congestion that festival traffic creates at the Exit 172 interchange. If you were injured in a crash during a Renaissance Festival weekend, the festival’s traffic impact on roads that cannot handle it is part of the liability picture. The event organizer, the county, and the at-fault driver may all have roles in the analysis.
The Larkspur Fire Protection District provides for the safety of about 7,000 people over 100 square miles using an annual budget of almost $2.9 million. When the I-25 Gap Project was under construction, the construction and closed lanes that caused traffic jams and created barriers to access resulted in an average of 21 minutes of emergency response time for the top 30 calls made by the district. This is compared to the nearly 13.5 minutes per call that the district had before the project started. The difference of almost 8 minutes (from 13.5 to 21 minutes) shows a 56% decline in how quickly emergency responders can arrive at a crash site.
Fire officials did not keep this statistic quiet. They warned publicly that the delayed response times could cause deaths. When a person is trapped in a vehicle with a crushed chest cavity and the fire district’s extrication equipment is 21 minutes away instead of 13, those additional 7.5 minutes are not a bureaucratic inconvenience. They are the margin between a survivable injury and a fatality. When a person is bleeding internally and the ambulance takes 21 minutes to arrive instead of 13, those additional minutes represent blood loss that may be impossible to reverse by the time the patient reaches a trauma center 15 miles away.
The Gap Project is complete and response times have improved, but Larkspur’s fundamental geography has not changed. The fire district still covers 100 square miles. The nearest hospital is still 15 miles away. A crash on I-25 in the Larkspur section during a snowstorm that has slowed traffic to a crawl will still produce response times that are longer than what any suburban community would tolerate. Travis Legal Offices documents response times in every Larkspur-area case and presents the delay to the jury as part of the damages picture when it contributed to the severity of our client’s injuries.
Larkspur sits at 6,726 feet on the Palmer Divide, the same elevation band that makes Monument Hill notorious for weather-related crashes. The Palmer Divide generates its own weather patterns: storms that produce rain at lower elevations produce snow and ice at Larkspur’s altitude. Fog can descend without warning and reduce visibility on I-25 to near zero. Wind gusts through the corridor can destabilize high-profile vehicles like semi-trucks and RVs, producing rollovers and lane departures.
The Larkspur Section lies at the middle of a weather-related closure of Interstate 25. When either direction of the interstate closes due to weather conditions and dozens of semi-trucks jackknife between Castle Rock and Monument; Larkspur becomes essentially isolated. The roads used as an alternative route (Greenland Rd., Spruce Mt. Rd.) are also shut down by the same weather conditions which isolates the 7,000 people living within the fire district’s service area and limits access to hospitals, law enforcement and emergency response resources located in Castle Rock and Monument.
For a driver injured on I-25 near Larkspur during a weather event, the isolation compounds every element of the case. Response times increase because emergency vehicles must navigate the same hazardous conditions. Transport times increase because the roads to the hospital are the same roads that are producing the crashes. And the argument that the at-fault driver “couldn’t have known” the conditions were dangerous collapses when the Palmer Divide’s weather patterns are as well-documented as they are: CDOT, the Colorado State Patrol, and every weather service in the state issue warnings when conditions on the Palmer Divide deteriorate. A driver who ignored those warnings and drove at speeds inappropriate for the conditions is a driver who chose to put everyone around them at risk.
The I-25 corridor through Larkspur includes steep grades that challenge heavy commercial vehicles. A loaded semi-truck weighing 80,000 pounds climbing a grade loses speed. The truck that was traveling at 65 mph on flat ground may be moving at 45 mph on the uphill section. Passenger vehicles behind the truck, still traveling at highway speed, encounter a 20 mph speed differential that compresses their following distance and reaction time. The result is rear-end crashes where a 3,500-pound car strikes the rear of an 80,000-pound truck, or where a car swerving to avoid the slow-moving truck collides with a vehicle in the adjacent lane.
On the downhill side, the physics reverse but the danger does not. A loaded semi-truck descending a grade must manage its speed through braking, and if the brakes overheat or the driver misjudges the grade, the truck accelerates beyond the driver’s ability to control it. Runaway truck situations on mountain grades are among the most catastrophic crash types in commercial trucking. Colorado recorded 4,715 medium and heavy truck accidents in 2024, resulting in 88 fatalities and 1,153 injuries. The Larkspur grades on I-25 are part of that data.
Truck crash cases involve regulatory frameworks that ordinary car accident cases do not. The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Regulations (49 C.F.R. Parts 390-399) govern hours of service, vehicle maintenance, driver qualifications, and cargo securement. A truck driver who was over the hours-of-service limit, whose brakes had not been properly maintained, or whose load was improperly secured when the crash occurred on a Larkspur grade has violated federal regulations, and those violations are powerful evidence of negligence. Travis Legal Offices has experience with commercial trucking cases and understands how to access the electronic logging device (ELD) data, the maintenance records, the driver qualification files, and the post-crash inspection reports that establish whether the trucking company and driver complied with federal law.
Call 911 and dial *CSP (*277) from your cell phone. Colorado State Patrol is the primary responding agency for I-25 crashes. The Douglas County Sheriff’s Office ((303) 660-7500) also responds. Do not expect a fast response in severe weather or when multiple crashes have already occurred on the corridor. Larkspur’s fire district covers 100 square miles, and if resources are already committed to another scene, your response time will reflect that.
Move off the travel lanes if you can do so safely. I-25 through Larkspur carries up to 87,000 vehicles on weekend days, and secondary crashes are a documented killer on this corridor. In November 2024, a pickup struck drivers exchanging information on the I-25 shoulder near Monument, killing one person. The lesson for Larkspur-area crashes is the same: standing on or near the interstate after an initial crash puts you at immediate risk of being hit by a following vehicle, especially in low-visibility conditions caused by weather, darkness, or the curve geometry of the road.
If your crash involved a commercial truck, do not let the trucking company’s representatives access or remove the vehicle before your attorney has had an opportunity to inspect it. Trucking companies deploy rapid-response teams to crash scenes to manage liability. They may attempt to download the truck’s electronic logging device data, inspect the vehicle, and interview witnesses before you have legal representation. Under Colorado law, you have the right to preserve evidence. Contact Travis Legal Offices at (303) 766-8766 immediately. We can begin the preservation process the same day, including sending a spoliation letter to the trucking company requiring them to preserve the ELD data, maintenance records, driver logs, and all electronic evidence related to the crash.
Accept ambulance transport to AdventHealth Castle Rock. Do not refuse medical treatment. The nearest hospital is 15 miles away, and any delay between the crash and your first medical evaluation creates a gap the insurance company will exploit.
Larkspur is in Douglas County under the 23rd Judicial District. Personal injury cases are filed at the Douglas County Courthouse, 4000 Justice Way, Castle Rock, CO 80109. Phone: (720) 437-6200. Travis Legal Offices is located in Castle Rock, minutes from the courthouse and 15 miles from Larkspur on I-25. When we handle a Larkspur crash case, the investigation happens on the road where you were hurt and the litigation happens at the courthouse we walk to from our office. That proximity is not a marketing detail. It is a practical advantage in a case where the crash scene, the courthouse, and our office are all within 15 miles of each other.
Travis Legal Offices represents injured people throughout the I-25 corridor and surrounding communities in Douglas County, Arapahoe County, Elbert County, and El Paso County. Click any location below to learn about the specific roads, intersections, and crash patterns in your community.
Our office is located at 333 Perry Street, Suite 203, in Castle Rock, at the intersection of Perry Street and 4th Street on the second floor. We also meet clients at their homes, hospitals, or any convenient location throughout the corridor. If you cannot come to us, we will come to you.
Larkspur is a town of 218 people that sits in the middle of the most crash-prone stretch of interstate in Colorado. The I-25 Gap corridor produced nearly a crash per day before the $419 million widening project, and even after the project’s completion, the corridor’s combination of steep grades, severe weather at 6,726 feet, and 87,000 weekend-day vehicles continues to generate crashes that are disproportionately severe compared to the flat, urban stretches of I-25 through the Denver metro.
Larkspur’s Spruce Mountain Open Space, the Greenland Open Space with its annual trail races, the connection to the Colorado Front Range Trail, the views of the foothills, all of it draws residents and visitors who value the natural beauty of the Palmer Divide. The Colorado Renaissance Festival has been bringing people to Larkspur since 1976. The community’s identity is small, rural, and deliberately apart from the suburban density of the cities to the north and south. And yet I-25 runs directly through it, carrying the traffic of the entire Front Range through a community that has no hospital to treat the injuries that traffic produces, no police department to investigate the crashes, and a fire district that has publicly warned that its response times may not be fast enough to save lives.
Travis Legal Offices takes Larkspur crash cases because no one should be denied justice because their crash happened in a small community. The injuries are real. The medical bills are real. The lost wages, the pain, the permanent impairment, all of it is real. Our Castle Rock office is 15 miles from the crash scene and minutes from the courthouse where your case will be heard. If you were injured on I-25 near Larkspur, during a Renaissance Festival weekend, on Greenland Road, or anywhere in this area, call (303) 766-8766. The consultation is free. The representation is trial-ready from day one.
Todd A. Travis founded Travis Legal after 26+ years representing injured Coloradans. His career includes complex personal injury work on both plaintiff and defense sides. That experience taught him exactly how insurance companies assess cases and which attorneys they undervalue. He’s tried cases to jury verdict and built this firm on a simple principle: catastrophic injury cases require genuine attention, not assembly-line processing. When Todd’s name appears on a demand letter, insurance adjusters respond differently. He answers client calls directly.
Jordan M. Travis joined the firm after law school, bringing a perspective shaped by growing up around trial preparation and legal strategy discussions. His generational approach complements the firm’s established reputation and adds contemporary research methods to how they build cases. Together, Todd and Jordan offer something larger firms can’t replicate: deep trial experience combined with current techniques and the capacity to give each client genuine attention. When you contact Travis Legal, you’re speaking with both attorneys. The same people who will manage your case from investigation through trial.
When you call, you reach Todd or Jordan. Not a receptionist. Not an intake specialist. Your actual attorney.
We work on contingency, meaning you pay nothing unless we win. The consultation is free. Given Colorado’s three-year statute of limitations, acting quickly matters. Evidence deteriorates. Video footage gets deleted. Witnesses relocate. Company records vanish.
Call (303) 766-877 today to talk to us about your case for free.
Travis Legal Offices, LLC
333 Perry Street, Suite 203
Castle Rock, Colorado 80104
(303) 766-8766 info@travislegaloffices.com