Last August, Polly Voss was driving northbound on I-25 in Colorado when she noticed two vehicles in the express lane running inches apart at high speed, brake-checking each other repeatedly. She started recording.
"It was really 10 out of 10 intensity level. I'm thinking a gun is coming out next... this is escalating."
Voss is a registered nurse. What she filmed next confirmed her instincts were correct. The driver of one car swerved suddenly right out of the express lane, nearly hitting a Jeep driven by Katie Bush, 17. Bush, trying to avoid the collision, lost control. Her Jeep crossed back across the interstate and rolled into the median.
Voss stopped and provided medical care. Remarkably, Bush was uninjured. Voss told CBS Colorado she had been certain otherwise.
"I'm thinking the person in the white Jeep is probably dead. I couldn't believe it. It felt like a miracle."
The cellphone footage made its way to the Colorado State Patrol, which used it to identify both drivers. One of them was Jack Ross, 33, an officer with the Keenesburg Police Department who was off duty and driving his personal vehicle. Investigators found that Ross had been tailgating the other vehicle and was, in the Colorado State Patrol's own words, "actively road raging" before the crash. After the Jeep rolled, Ross left.
He has been charged with reckless driving and failure to report an accident or return to the scene, both misdemeanor offences. A court date was scheduled for 11 March. There are indications a plea deal may be in the works.
When troopers tracked Ross down, he said he had not seen a crash. His own wife, who was in the car with him, told investigators she had seen it happen and had commented that she hoped the other driver was okay. Ross's reported response to her was: "It wasn't their fault."
Through his attorneys, Ross declined to comment.
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Katie Bush's father, Jeff Bush, has worn a law enforcement badge for 23 years. He is not sympathetic to his fellow officer.
"It was completely unacceptable behavior by both motorists that day. In law enforcement we have a higher standard set upon us both in our professional and in our personal lives. To see that kind of behavior from an off-duty officer and the lack of care and compassion to leave the scene after causing an accident was really frustrating."
Bush said while it is difficult to speak out against a fellow officer, he is adamantly opposed to a plea deal. "He needs to face the music on this one."
The story has a second layer that is harder to dismiss as an isolated incident. Keenesburg Police Chief James Jensen was aware of the I-25 crash and the pending criminal charges against Ross when he hired him in 2025. He hired him anyway, describing Ross as a good officer who integrates well into the community. Jensen also hired Scot Persichette, a probationary Denver Police officer fired in 2024 after joking in a group text about shooting migrants for target practice, telling CBS Colorado he believes in second chances and that Persichette is remorseful.
CBS Colorado's investigation into what it describes as "second chance cops" found that Ross had also resigned from two previous departments while the subject of internal affairs investigations, and that a letter questioning his credibility was already on file with district attorneys in Northern Colorado before Keenesburg took him on. He remains an active officer.
Colorado is not an outlier on road rage. More than half of all calls to Colorado State Patrol dispatchers in 2024 were related to road rage or aggressive driving, totalling more than 30,000 out of 54,956 calls received. Consumer Affairs ranked Colorado in the top three states in the nation for road rage. Denver Police recorded 497 road rage incidents in 2024, up 151 per cent from 198 in 2020. The Gun Violence Archive documented 149 road rage shooting incidents in the state over the previous ten years.
The Ross case lands in that context as something beyond a bad day on the highway. A police officer, sworn to uphold the standard he was expected to exceed, chose to road-rage another vehicle into rolling a teenager's car, then told investigators he had not noticed. The system that is supposed to hold that accountable is currently discussing a plea deal.
Sources: Carscoops, March 2026 | CBS Colorado, March 2026 | CBS Colorado second chance cops investigation, March 2026 | CPR News, May 2025 | Colorado State Patrol 2024 dispatch data | Gun Violence Archive / The Trace Colorado road rage data
