Wildlife Officers Flag Down Driver Who Blew Through Roadblock Toward Collapsed US 160 Bridge

Piedra River, United States – Colorado wildlife officers frantically waved down a driver who went around a roadblock and nearly drove into the Piedra River, where floodwater had destroyed the US 160 bridge.

Footage released by Colorado Parks and Wildlife's southwest region shows an officer in a high-visibility jacket waving both arms in the rain as a car approaches on the closed highway. The camera then shows the broken end of the road where the bridge section is gone, with the swollen river below.

"Don't be the person who blows through a CDOT roadblock and almost drives into the Piedra River where the bridge over US 160 no longer exists," the agency wrote. "Despite our patrols blocking roads, this still almost happened."

The Colorado Department of Transportation called it a bridge failure after the piers gave way during the flooding about 22 miles west of Pagosa Springs. It hopes to install a temporary bridge within one to two weeks.