Another person is dead after a multi-vehicle incident on I-80, adding another tragedy to a chaotic week on Wyoming’s highways.
The Wyoming Highway Patrol confirmed that there was one fatality, an unidentified Utah resident, associated with an incident that occurred near Rock Springs at 1:53 a.m. Sunday. The incident, which involved several semi-trucks and other vehicles, kept the eastbound lanes of I-80 closed for over 17 hours.
The death was the second on the highway since Thursday.
“We believe it was a flash freeze,” said Aaron Brown, spokesman for the Wyoming Highway Patrol (WHP). “A couple of trucks crashed, and then more followed in a chain reaction. I'm waiting on an official number, but we're looking at 15 to 20 vehicles involved.”
In addition to the one fatality, six people were transported to local hospitals for treatment of injuries sustained in the crash. An additional 13 people were taken to the Sweetwater County Fairgrounds for shelter.
The WHP’s initial report identifies the victim as J.C. Slaugh, 29, of Utah. He was driving a Chevrolet Trailblazer that struck a guardrail and rolled over and down a steep cliff after overcorrecting a turn.
It was another urgent response after several days of severe weather and multi-vehicle incidents that, as of Monday, have taken two lives in the last week. WHP troopers have been busy helping stranded and injured motorists while issuing multiple citations.
“Bad weather and bad decision-making never mix,” Brown said.
Ongoing Tally
WHP troopers and agencies across Wyoming were busy after Thursday’s windstorm caused multiple incidents across southern Wyoming and stayed busy through the weekend. Brown was still collecting reports on Monday, slowly building an overall assessment of the scale of these incidents.
“We had 33 blowovers on March 12 alone,” he said. “We had 12 blowovers on I-80, and seven of those occurred between mile markers 288 and 289. That’s a very small area.”
Michael Sandrone, 69, of Utah, died in one of Thursday's blowovers. According to the WHP’s initial report, he was traveling westbound on Wyoming Highway 28 south of Lander when his Peterbilt truck tipped over and rolled into a ditch near the Red Canyon Scenic Overlook.
Severe wind was cited as the primary factor, with speed as a possible contributing factor.
A 20-vehicle pileup between Laramie and Sinclair sent two people to local hospitals on the same day.
“We don’t know the actual cause (of that incident), but you can imagine it could have been ice and people following too close, driving too fast for conditions,” said Brown.
Nothing New
Despite the plethora of multi-vehicle incidents and prolonged closures on Wyoming’s highways since last Thursday, Brown said it’s “nothing new” for the WHP.
“No matter how many troopers you have out there, you're going to get stretched thin when you have a windstorm and a lot of people that aren't listening,” he said.
Brown had another important number associated with the incidents on Thursday. Of the 33 blowovers, 22 drivers involved in those blowovers were issued citations.
Most of those citations were issued for vehicles that were underweight for the conditions, in violation of the parameters of the closures enacted by the Wyoming Department of Transportation. Multiple closures were issued for high-profile vehicles under certain gross vehicle weights, and Brown said most of the cited vehicles were traveling when they shouldn’t have been.
“That's not a cheap citation, either,” he said.
Mother Nature Always Wins
Brown doesn't think any of these drivers were exercising “purposeful defiance.” Rather, he believes many of them were negligent in not checking Wyoming’s highway closures or overestimating their ability to safely travel during high-wind events, which was reflected by their citations.
“We had 15 blowovers on I-25 on Tuesday, from the Colorado (state line) all the way up to mile marker 195, north of Casper,” he said. “When you have that many people trying to take on the wind or not observing closures, something as simple as being caught off-guard or not paying attention can cause a serious accident.”
In Brown's opinion, the overall mild conditions of the last several months, coupled with the sudden Arctic blasts, have lulled many drivers into a false sense of complacency. That’s why heeding highway closures, especially during high-wind events, is so critical.
“When we have these big windstorms, people are either caught off guard by them or simply don't listen to the warnings or closures,” he said. “These guys tried to take it anyway, even though they were underweight. It's an expensive way to find out that you mess with Mother Nature, you're going to lose.”
Andrew Rossi can be reached at arossi@cowboystatedaily.com.
