DENVER -- A three-mile stretch of Interstate 70 re-opened early Sunday after a 40-ton steel girder collapsed, killing a family of three traveling inside a sport utility vehicle, state officials said.

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Crews worked overnight to cut up the 100-foot long girder and move it to the side of the freeway. Several pieces of the girder were given to the Jefferson County Sheriff's Office, which will investigate whether criminal wrongdoing or negligence was involved. National Transportation Safety Board staff met with sheriff's investigators, the Colorado State Patrol and the Colorado Department of Transportation on Sunday. They will split up into investigative teams and inspect the girder and the bridge inch-by-inch.

The girder collapse is the state's worse highway construction accident in 17 years.

The names of the victims have not been released but a family member identified the victims as William "Billy" and Anita Post and their daughter, Koby Ann. The couple had moved to Colorado from New York about a year ago. The family's blue Dodge Durango was sliced in half when the steel support girder landed on them just after 10 a.m. Saturday. The top half of the vehicle was blocked by the girder while the bottom half of the vehicle kept going for another quarter-mile.

Investigators with the CSP said there were no skid marks on the road, so the accident must have happened so suddenly that the driver did not have time to react.

"It was a very, very freak accident," Jefferson County Sheriff's Office spokesman Jim Shires told reporters. "A second and a half later, and the accident probably wouldn't have happened."

Authorities were also amazed that only one car was affected, given that more than 30,000 vehicles travel that stretch of I-70 every day.

The 6-foot tall girder that fell was put up Tuesday as crews were adding a lane to a bridge carrying C-470 over I-70, said CDOT spokeswoman Stacy Stegman. The girder was anchored to the existing bridge with five metal braces spaced evenly along its length. The bracings are fastened to the bridge with 8- to 10-inch bolts. For some reason, those temporary braces gave way, causing the girder to fall onto the freeway below, Stegman said.

Stegman said when the girder landed on the highway, every single one of those bracings was ripped out of its place. Investigators are looking at the possibility that a car or large truck hit the girder and jarred it earlier in the week or that weather was somehow a factor.

Workers had planned on attaching a companion girder on Wednesday night, but the work was postponed because of rain and snow. The second girder, which might have provided more support for the first girder, was to be placed Sunday night but any further construction on the flyover will be delayed until the investigation is complete.

Gov. Bill Owens and U.S. Rep. Bob Beauprez visited the accident scene Saturday afternoon and vowed that authorities would conduct a full investigation.

"We have a number of priorities -- to learn what we can to insure this doesn't occur again (and) to get to the bottom of it to learn any mistakes made," Owens said.

Before reopening I-70 around 2 a.m. CDOT crews made certain the road was safe, and were also checking other construction sites around the state.

Asphalt Specialties Co., the contractor supervising the project, and Ridge Erection Co., the subcontractor that installed the girder, were cooperating with the investigation. Both companies have excellent track records, Stegman said.

The widening of the C-470 flyover is part of a $12 million reconstruction of the C-470/I-70 interchange, which is scheduled to be complete in spring 2005.