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WATCH: Colorado trooper uses vehicle to stop wrong-way driver
Posted
September 2, 2026
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387
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September 2, 2026
387
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1:19Now PlayingA Colorado State Patrol Trooper walked away with minor injuries after using his patrol car to stop a woman driving the wrong way on I-76 in northeast Colorado.
"Ultimately, he did exactly what he needed to do to stop that vehicle and it ultimately ended in hopefully saving someone's life," said Trooper Hunter Mathews, CSP.
Body camera footage shows the head-on crash between a Colorado State Patrol Trooper and a woman driving the wrong way down I-76 near Fort Morgan after 2 a.m. Sunday morning.
"While he was driving down the roadway in the number one lane, he noticed the vehicle coming at him and decided the best measure for him to stop that vehicle was to collide head on with it," Trooper Mathews said.
Mathews said CSP troopers will do what they need to when a car is going the wrong way, even if it means crashing into them.
"Yeah, you know these things happen so fast and we really don't have much time to process exactly what we're going to do," Mathews said. "In that moment, the best thing for him to do and for everyone in the area that is going to be driving eastbound on that roadway was to stop that vehicle by hitting it head on."
After the crash, the trooper walked away with minor injuries and was still able to arrest the driver, 36-year-old Claudia Rodriguez. Rodriguez had only minor injuries, according to CSP, but she faces charges for DUI and reckless driving.
Mathews said troopers deal with DUIs constantly in Colorado, on average issuing more than 4,000 DUI charges a year. So far this year, CSP data showed more than 2,600 have been charged.
And Mathews said it's not unusual for an impaired driver to be going the wrong way.
"These wrong-way drivers don't know exactly what they're doing and in this case, the trooper made sure that the driver was stopped," Mathews said.
CSP data provided to 9NEWS earlier this year found investigators respond to roughly two wrong-way crashes a week, including 112 in 2025.
Mathews said they hope sharing the body camera video from Sunday morning's crash shows people exactly how dangerous driving the wrong way can be and hopefully, convinces people to put down the keys when it's not safe to drive.
If you're driving and see someone driving who may be under the influence, CSP encourages you to report it by calling *277.
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