An investigation into what the Rock Springs Police Department says appears to be a tragic accident at the Flying J Travel Center is ongoing after a truck stop employee was pinned between two semis and died early Sunday morning.
It is an accident that could have been prevented, say two commercial truck drivers who refuse to park at the Flying J in Rock Springs because of its consistently crowded parking lot.
The Rock Springs Police Department reports that the employee was directing commercial traffic in the Flying J parking lot at about 5 a.m. Sunday when a semitrailer began to move.
The employee was pinned between that truck and a second stationary vehicle.
Members of the Rock Springs Fire Department and Castle Rock Ambulance service attempted to save the employee, but were unable to do so.
The name of the employee has not been released, although RSPS spokesperson Elizabeth Coontz confirmed that the worker’s family has been notified.
The truck driver involved in the incident remained on-site and was fully cooperative with investigators, according to the police department’s report. The driver, who is from Idaho, was released following an initial statement and questioning.
Too much traffic?
Truck driver Mark Maxa was driving his load through Rock Springs early Sunday morning and saw the aftermath of the incident from Interstate 80.
"I rolled by it and saw something was going on,” he told Cowboy State Daily. “I had a bad feeling when I saw the coroner down there.
“I wondered what had happened,” he continued. "Then I saw the report and I was like, really?”
Maxa commented on the Rock Springs Police Department’s report about the accident, saying, “This is exactly why I do not stop at this travel center because people park where they shouldn’t. … This is an accident that could’ve been prevented.”
He told Cowboy State Daily the Rock Springs travel center "is pretty much the biggest joke Flying J I’ve ever seen. There’s just no room.”
Truck driver Bryan Clines of Bar Nunn told Cowboy State Daily he quit parking his rig at the Rock Springs Flying J about three years ago because maneuvering his load through all the parked traffic got to be too much.
“I refuse to go to that Flying J,” said Clines, who has been driving trucks for 18 years. “The problem at that truck stop is drivers pull in there and park wherever they want to park.”
Clines said his truck has been sideswiped there and that he’s had more than one too-close-for-comfort moments there.
“I won’t do it,” he said.
Both Clines and Maxa also said that getting to the fuel lot at the Rock Springs Flying J is a challenge, as they have to maneuver their loads through the middle of parked traffic.
Parking Elsewhere
Rather than parking at the Flying J, Clines said he parks at the TA in Rawlins or the Love’s in Wamsutter.
“The trucks don’t pull in there and stack on top of each other,” he said.
Maxa does the same thing.
“When I’m forced to spend the night in that area, I go to truck stop down the road and spend the night,” he said.
Maxa’s go-to is Cruel Jack’s near Green River.
“They don’t charge you to park,” he said. "They got lots of room, and they do not allow people to park where they’re not supposed to."
The Investigation
Coontz said police officers interviewed those at the scene and watched a video of the incident.
The investigation is not complete yet, she said, adding that other agencies, including the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) will conduct their own probes.
The investigation remains open, which Coontz said is standard.
Officers will likely keep the investigation open until they receive a death certificate that officially determines the cause of death. Coontz said death certificates commonly take about a month to process.
“Just because it’s remaining open doesn’t necessarily mean there was foul play,” she said.
A statement from the Flying J’s corporate office confirmed that one of its employees died in a “tragic parking lot accident.”
The company is continuing to work closely with authorities during the ongoing investigation, according to the statement.
The company did not answer Cowboy State Daily’s follow-up questions about whether work the employee was doing was considered dangerous, whether the job of managing commercial traffic in the parking lot was routine or whether the accident will change the way that Flying J will manage commercial traffic.
The company directed all questions to the Rock Springs Police Department.
GOAL: Get Out And Look
Clines and Maxa said Sunday’s apparent accident points to a larger issue of negligence.
Clines said he often witnesses the failure of truck stop employees to enforce parking regulations because “they don’t want the confrontation with the tired truck driver.”
While details around exactly how the Flying J employee was managing commercial traffic in the lot have not been released, Clines said being trained to know a semi’s blind spots is crucial for truck stop employees.
Truck drivers are trained to be proactive, he said, and know GOAL — to get out and look — before moving a rig if they know a person is in their vicinity.
“You have to go above and beyond,” Clines said.
Maxa called the accident a terrible tragedy.
Clines agreed, adding that “If it happened to me, I would probably get out of my truck and never drive a truck again. There’s a lot of responsibility sitting in this seat. People don’t grasp that perspective.”
Kate Meadows can be reached at kate@cowboystatedaily.com.
