Interstate 25 near Pueblo was shut down in both directions indefinitely on Sunday evening after a train hauling coal derailed on a bridge crossing over the roadway.
Coal and mangled train cars were spewed across the interstate at milepost 106, which is just north of Pueblo. The bridge also collapsed in the crash.
A semi-trailer driver was trapped beneath the wreckage, the Colorado State Patrol said.
The National Transportation Safety Board is sending investigators to the site about 114 miles south of Denver.
U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg said on X, the social media site formerly known as Twitter, that he is touch with Colorado Gov. Jared Polis about the derailment and that he had been briefed by the Federal Railroad and Federal Highway administrations.
The state patrol and Pueblo County Sheriff’s Office posted photos and videos showing a partially collapsed bridge over the interstate with the semi-truck caught beneath. The images also showed a pileup of train cars, train wheels scattered across the scene and loads of coal covering a portion of the highway.
Officials were directing drivers to avoid the area coal and train cars were removed from the road.
Motorists were being detoured around the closure on U.S. 50 and Colorado 115.
The derailment happened as President Joe Biden is set to visit Pueblo on Monday.
A railroad bridge collapse in southern Montana in June sent railcars with oil products plunging into the Yellowstone River, spilling molten sulfur and up to 250 tons of hot asphalt.
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