The town of Vail passed a new ordinance on Tuesday issuing stiffer penalties to truckers who ignore chain-up laws and end up spun out, or worse, on Interstate 70, blocking traffic into and out of Vail.

On Wednesday morning, a semi tractor-trailer spun out and jackknifed at mile marker 175.5 on I-70, stalling traffic outside of Vail Town Hall, where the new ordinance had been approved the night before to take effect immediately, creating a maximum allowable fine of $2,650 for truckers who block the roadway.

But despite the fact that the roadway was blocked for hours, causing backups that extended out of Vail into Dowd Junction, the driver of the jackknifed truck did not receive the new fines, Police Chief Ryan Kenney has confirmed, because that area of the highway is not technically part of the chain-up zone in which the new ordinance can be enforced.

That chain-up zone begins at the East Vail Chain-Up Station at mile marker 178 and includes Vail Pass, but not the town of Vail or, further to the west, Dowd Junction, where several closures have taken place this winter season.

Kenney said he would support moving the chain-up station to the west side of Dowd Junction so that tractor-trailers would have to chain up before entering Dowd Junction, which has several turns that can become icy and problematic for drivers. Historically, Dowd Junction has been one of the most accident-prone areas of Eagle County, and Dowd Canyon has been identified by the Colorado Department of Transportation as a problem area when it comes to rockfall, as well.

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“I wish the state would include Dowd Junction and all of Vail in the required chains area but that would require moving the chain up and chain down areas to EagleVail,” Kenney said. “That would be a very large project and may not be possible with the lay of the road and the availability of land.”

A fine for a chain-up law violation in Vail was raised to $1,500 on Tuesday, and it increases to $2,650 if a Vail Police Department officer determines that a vehicle is blocking any portion of a roadway “so as to impede vehicular travel.”

But in order to be cited under the new ordinance, the driver must be stopped, or the incident must have occurred, within a chain-up area between Sept. 1 and May 31, when tractor-trailers are required to carry chains in Colorado.

“The penalty of $2,650 is for blocking the road after not chaining up when the law is in effect,” Vail Communications Director Kris Widlak said. “The penalty of $1,500 is for not carrying chains during the required timeframe or for not chaining up when the law is in effect.”

The town started its campaign for stiffer penalties by reaching out to Gov. Jared Polis with a letter in February, stating that commercial vehicle drivers’ failure to comply with safety laws has put the town’s emergency responders in harm’s way in adverse conditions and “also impacts our ability to respond to emergencies in the town of Vail.”

But the town, after issuing that letter on Feb. 4, has been “underwhelmed by the response we got,” Coggin said at a council meeting a month later, prompting the town to enact the emergency ordinance to increase penalities.

Gov. Jared Polis told reporters earlier this month that he would be “very open to increasing the penalties” on vehicles traveling without chains or adequate tire traction on mountain roads but that the legislature would need to first send a bill to his desk.