With Wyoming’s wide-open spaces and plenty of pavement between dots on the map, getting stranded in the middle of nowhere on a closed section of Interstate 80 is always a possibility.
That’s what hundreds of people driving commercial trucks and passenger vehicles were reminded of Saturday when a fatal crash closed miles of eastbound lanes before and after Rawlins for more than eight hours.
And while it’s inconvenient and frustrating, it’s only for a few hours for motorists while the crash has changed the lives of others and their families forever, said Wyoming Highway Patrol Trooper Ryan Gerdes.
“People can get upset, but they don’t realize at the time that someone actually perished in this crash,” he said. “In the moment of chaos, people don’t know what to do, and I understand that.
“What people don’t understand is we truly want them to get to their destinations in a timely manner.”
When you’re stuck, however, all you know is you’re stuck. People handle the frustration of getting nowhere slowly differently.
And with Wyoming being so open and barren between pit stops, it’s always prudent to plan for an unexpected traffic jam or highway closure, Gerdes said.
The UW Fans
Many of the non-commercial drivers going east on I-80 that morning were on their way to the University of Wyoming’s football home opener in Laramie. Most never made it.
Dan Schisel was among them.
He was on I-80 headed for Laramie for the game when he and his wife were stopped outside Rawlins at 10 a.m. Within ten minutes, he knew they would be there for a while.
The standstill was caused by a collision of two semitrailers around 9:30 a.m., which caused one fatality and engulfed one of the trucks in flames.
I-80 eastbound was completely closed for more than eight hours while the charred wreckage was cleared from the highway and firefighters put down spot grass fires caused by the crash.
“When I we saw the Carbon County Coroner's vehicle go by us about 10 minutes after we stopped, I knew it was going to be a while,” he told Cowboy State Daily on Monday. “I thought we would be sitting there for probably an hour or so, but I didn't anticipate the entire day.”
Carbon County Coroner Brittany Nyman told Cowboy State Daily that the victim has been identified, but they are waiting for confirmation from next-of-kin before making it public.
Schisel and his wife stopped four miles from the fiery wreck and were stuck for more than seven hours until they could get off I-80 and return to Rawlins. They didn’t make it to Laramie in time for the game.
“I sold my tickets on Facebook,” he said. “We have season tickets, so they've been long since paid for, but I didn't want them to go to waste.”
There For The Long Haul
Hundreds of vehicles were stranded on I-80 in the aftermath of the fatal crash. While some were fortunate enough to reach an exit or avoid I-80 altogether, most people stuck in the standstill had nowhere to go.
Schisel spent most of Saturday trapped on an overpass between Exits 219 and 221. His vehicle was surrounded by semitrailers, and there was nowhere to safely pull over.
“We would move maybe a 10th of a mile about every hour or so, and then we would sit for another hour to an hour and a half at a time,” he said. “I got out and stretched my legs a few times, but I couldn’t go anywhere.”
Bailey Layton and his wife took I-80 from Rock Springs to Fort Collins on Saturday. They were stopped at 10 a.m. and didn’t get going again until 5:30 p.m.
“Every so often, we'd move up a little bit here and there,” he said. “We kept trying to get to a spot where we could pull off to the side and get on the ramp. But we were stuck in a spot we couldn't move for and had nowhere to go.”
Layton and Schisel said they got updates from the Wyoming Department of Transportation via radio and text while family and friends sent whatever information they could. But that didn’t give them any opportunity to get off I-80.
“I was just glad we didn't have our kids with us,” Layton said. “I can only imagine what people who did have their little kids with them were dealing with. I saw a couple of folks with little kids getting out and trying to let them stretch their legs now and then.”
Nothing To Do But Wait
Most Wyoming drivers expect I-80 closures during winter when snow and ice make travel too dangerous. But many drivers stuck Saturday weren’t prepared for an extended summer standstill.
“We didn't expect that,” Layton said. “We had some food and water in the car, but those were gone about an hour into it. So, we didn't have anything with us.”
Schisel and his wife had even less in their vehicle.
“I had a half gallon of water with me,” he said. “We had no food because we thought we were going to have a pregame meal at the Cowboy Joe Club.”
The wait was long and uncomfortable, especially with the extra heat from sitting inside a parked car on the exposed highway. Layton and Schisel expended a lot of gasoline to keep themselves cool.
“We burned about half a tank of gas just sitting there,” Layton said. “We had plenty in the tank and were able to get to Rawlins to fill up, but sitting in the sun ate a lot of gas.”
Illegal Escape
With traffic at a complete standstill, all the trapped drivers could do was bide their time and keep their cars idling so air conditioning could provide some relief. Others decided on an illegal and potentially dangerous escape route.
Several people were spotted driving on the shoulder of the highway, breaking traffic laws to escape the standstill. They didn’t know it at the time, but one semi crossing over and hitting another parked on the shoulder is what caused the crash in the first place.
“A few people in front of us had cut through a spot where a cable barrier had been breached through the median,” Schisel said. “No. 1, I didn't want to do that because it's illegal. And No. 2, I was driving a sports car then, so that wasn't feasible anyway.”
Schisel was using an app to listen to the Wyoming Highway Patrol’s radio communications and heard about a possible solution to get people off I-80. However, it came to naught after the intended escape route was already blocked.
“At about noon, the Wyoming Highway Patrol broadcast on their radio channel that they were going to close the gate and route us all back to Rawlins using the Exit 221 at Sinclair,” he said. “That never happened, and I heard it was because trucks parked on the ramp.”
Gillette resident and retired law enforcement officer Frank Groth witnessed plenty of reckless, selfish drivers break the law to avoid traffic jams during his career.
“I’ve seen people drive across the center divide and use the cutovers to try going the other way to find a backroad,” he said. “Even if there’s not a barrier in the center divide, there could be enough of a change in grade that if you try to drive a car through it, you're going to get stuck.”
Groth said shoulders and other open areas around a highway could be viable ways to alleviate traffic jams, but only under the organized direction of law enforcement officers. Self-initiative is dangerous and illegal.
“Sometimes they’ll open the shoulders, block all the lanes, have people merge over and drive the shoulder to the nearest exit,” he said. “If you're obeying the instructions or directions of a law enforcement officer, then you're fine, but nobody should do that on their own.
“We’ve all been stuck in traffic, and people get impatient, but if everyone else stays put, so should you.”
Next Time
Saturday’s standstill demonstrated that prolonged traffic delays on Wyoming’s busiest highway aren’t regulated to any season. A summer standstill and shutdown were surprising but not entirely unexpected.
WYDOT recommends that Wyoming drivers keep an emergency kit in their vehicles. Essential items include water and dehydrated foods, blankets or sleeping bags, booster cables and an emergency first-aid kit to keep passengers safe if caught on a closed highway during a thunderstorm.
“Keeping water and snacks in your vehicle is always a good idea,” Groth said. “The situation on I-80 was lengthy, and people were just flat stuck in the middle of almost nowhere. Having a couple of bottles of water and some trail mix stowed in the car is not a bad idea.”
After Saturday’s all-day shutdown, drivers might want to make it a priority to get that emergency kit together.
“I'm a Wyoming native,” Schisel said. “I've lived here all my life, and you’ve got to be prepared for anything. It’s something I always (try to) practice because you never know what you’re going to run into out there.”
Andrew Rossi can be reached at arossi@cowboystatedaily.com.
