A 15-year-old driver died west of Casper on Monday after crashing the vehicle he was driving into a dump truck.
According to the Wyoming Highway Patrol, the teen was driving a 2001 Mitsubishi Galant westbound on Wyoming Highway 220 west of Casper at about 4 p.m. when he drifted across the centerline and collided head-on with a dump truck.
Law enforcement agents are investigating driver inattention by the youth as a “potential contributing factor,” the WHP says in a prepared press release Tuesday.
The driver of the 1993 International commercial-style dump truck, Dustin H. Geiger, 47, was driving east and wearing his seat belt. Geiger was not hurt.
The teen also was wearing his seat belt, but succumbed to his injuries at the crash scene, the agency said.
The Natrona County Coroner’s office said it has notified the youth’s next-of-kin but is not yet ready to identify him by name. However, the coroner said the boy was 15.
This is the 111th fatality on Wyoming’s roadways in 2022 compared to 94 in 2021, 115 in 2020, and 132 in 2019 to date, the Wyoming Highway Patrol reports.
This is a developing story and will be updated as further details emerge.
