Since 2015, the Colorado State Patrol experienced five tragic losses resulting from struck-by incidents. In May 2015, a trooper and cadet trooper were investigating a previous crash when a suspect being pursued drove through their scene, intentionally striking the trooper, causing critical injuries, and then striking the cadet trooper, who sustained fatal injuries. In November of the same year, a trooper was assisting at a previous crash scene when she was made aware of an approaching suspected impaired driver.

The trooper exited her vehicle and attempted to flag the impaired driver to the shoulder but was struck and killed by the driver, who fled the scene but was later apprehended. A year later, a trooper was standing on the right shoulder of Interstate 25 at the scene of a previous crash when a commercial motor vehicle failed to move over and struck and fatally wounded him. In March 2019, a corporal was working during a significant weather event and pulled to the shoulder of Interstate 76 to assist a motorist who had slid off the icy roadway. As he was exiting his patrol car, a speeding vehicle lost control, subsequently striking and killing the corporal. Only four months after the previous tragedy, a trooper was collecting roadway evidence from a previous crash when he was struck and killed by a passing vehicle.

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