Five people died Sunday night after a person driving the wrong way down Interstate 80 triggered a multi-car pileup, the Wyoming Highway Patrol reported.
All five people were occupants of a Ford F-150 that was struck by a commercial truck, which was trying to avoid the pickup traveling the wrong way on the highway.
The crash occurred just before 7 p.m. east of Rawlins as a Dodge Ram 3500 drove east on the wrong side of the interstate. The pickup struck both a passenger car and a commercial truck, the highway patrol reported.
As the Dodge collided with the car, the driver of a second commercial truck tried to avoid the approaching pickup by driving in the median. In the process, that truck entered the eastbound lanes, where it collided head-on with the Ford F-150. Both of those vehicles then burst into flames.
Multiple people were also critically injured in the chain-reaction wreck and taken to hospitals.
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Authorities arrested the Dodge’s driver on suspicion of being under the influence while behind the wheel. That person, who was not identified, may face additional charges, the patrol said.
Three additional people died on Wyoming highways over the weekend.
On Saturday, a Colorado man died after a 15-year-old driver lost control of a truck on an ice-covered stretch of Interstate 25. Adam Mitchell, 49, of Laporte, Colorado, was not wearing a seat belt and died at the scene of the crash near Wheatland.
The 15-year-old and another man were injured.
Then on Sunday morning, two Missouri men died when the windshield of the semi-truck they were traveling in detached during a crash and they were buried under roughly 2 feet of snow. The snow solidified, trapping both men in the semi-truck’s sleeper berth.
A Wyoming Highway Patrol report identified the two men as driver Keith Koehler II, 39, and passenger Tyler Judd, 40.
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A state-by-state breakdown of crashes involving large trucks
Crashes involving large trucks
In 2020, there were 54,272 fatal crashes reported to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. Many of these crashes involved passenger vehicles — sedans, SUVs, or relatively small trucks; however, thousands of fatal crashes involved another type of vehicle: large trucks. In fact, large trucks — commercial and non-commercial trucks weighing over 10,000 pounds — were involved in almost 5,000 fatal crashes, or just under 9% of total fatal crashes, in 2020. Although the large truck category begins at 10,000 pounds, the majority of trucks involved in these crashes weighed more than 26,000 pounds.
And while that number may seem like a lot, it actually represents a 1% decline from the prior year. One potential reason for the decrease in fatal crashes involving large trucks is the pandemic, which caused a shift in the supply chain and consumer demand that may have put fewer large commercial trucks on the road.
But do certain states have more fatal large truck crashes than others? Walkup, Melodia, Kelly, & Schoenberger collected data from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration's Fatal Analysis Reporting System to understand how many accidents in each state involved large trucks. Each state was ranked based on the number of accidents involving large trucks per 100,000 residents, using data from the FARS April 2020 Traffic Safety Facts report. Population size was drawn from U.S. Census state population totals. Click through for a look at how many crashes involving large trucks happened in each state in 2020.
#51. District of Columbia
- Fatal crashes involving a large truck: 2 (0.3 per 100k people)
- Total fatal crashes: 50 (4.0% involving a large truck)
#50. Massachusetts
- Fatal crashes involving a large truck: 28 (0.4 per 100k people)
- Total fatal crashes: 488 (5.7% involving a large truck)
#49. Hawaii
- Fatal crashes involving a large truck: 6 (0.4 per 100k people)
- Total fatal crashes: 114 (5.3% involving a large truck)
#48. New York
- Fatal crashes involving a large truck: 116 (0.6 per 100k people)
- Total fatal crashes: 1437 (8.1% involving a large truck)
#47. New Jersey
- Fatal crashes involving a large truck: 54 (0.6 per 100k people)
- Total fatal crashes: 818 (6.6% involving a large truck)
#46. Vermont
- Fatal crashes involving a large truck: 4 (0.6 per 100k people)
- Total fatal crashes: 80 (5.0% involving a large truck)
#45. Rhode Island
- Fatal crashes involving a large truck: 7 (0.6 per 100k people)
- Total fatal crashes: 93 (7.5% involving a large truck)
#44. Connecticut
- Fatal crashes involving a large truck: 25 (0.7 per 100k people)
- Total fatal crashes: 415 (6.0% involving a large truck)
#43. Michigan
- Fatal crashes involving a large truck: 74 (0.7 per 100k people)
- Total fatal crashes: 1567 (4.7% involving a large truck)
#42. Washington
- Fatal crashes involving a large truck: 60 (0.8 per 100k people)
- Total fatal crashes: 794 (7.6% involving a large truck)
#41. New Hampshire
- Fatal crashes involving a large truck: 11 (0.8 per 100k people)
- Total fatal crashes: 148 (7.4% involving a large truck)
#40. Delaware
- Fatal crashes involving a large truck: 9 (0.9 per 100k people)
- Total fatal crashes: 162 (5.6% involving a large truck)
#39. Maryland
- Fatal crashes involving a large truck: 57 (0.9 per 100k people)
- Total fatal crashes: 818 (7.0% involving a large truck)
#38. California
- Fatal crashes involving a large truck: 384 (1.0 per 100k people)
- Total fatal crashes: 5268 (7.3% involving a large truck)
#37. Nevada
- Fatal crashes involving a large truck: 32 (1.0 per 100k people)
- Total fatal crashes: 451 (7.1% involving a large truck)
#36. Minnesota
- Fatal crashes involving a large truck: 59 (1.0 per 100k people)
- Total fatal crashes: 548 (10.8% involving a large truck)
#35. Wisconsin
- Fatal crashes involving a large truck: 63 (1.1 per 100k people)
- Total fatal crashes: 825 (7.6% involving a large truck)
#34. Pennsylvania
- Fatal crashes involving a large truck: 147 (1.1 per 100k people)
- Total fatal crashes: 1597 (9.2% involving a large truck)
#33. Utah
- Fatal crashes involving a large truck: 38 (1.2 per 100k people)
- Total fatal crashes: 397 (9.6% involving a large truck)
#32. Ohio
- Fatal crashes involving a large truck: 145 (1.2 per 100k people)
- Total fatal crashes: 1766 (8.2% involving a large truck)
#31. Colorado
- Fatal crashes involving a large truck: 74 (1.3 per 100k people)
- Total fatal crashes: 885 (8.4% involving a large truck)
#30. Virginia
- Fatal crashes involving a large truck: 113 (1.3 per 100k people)
- Total fatal crashes: 1211 (9.3% involving a large truck)
#29. Illinois
- Fatal crashes involving a large truck: 170 (1.3 per 100k people)
- Total fatal crashes: 1673 (10.2% involving a large truck)
#28. Alaska
- Fatal crashes involving a large truck: 10 (1.4 per 100k people)
- Total fatal crashes: 80 (12.5% involving a large truck)
#27. Maine
- Fatal crashes involving a large truck: 20 (1.5 per 100k people)
- Total fatal crashes: 216 (9.3% involving a large truck)
#26. North Carolina
- Fatal crashes involving a large truck: 157 (1.5 per 100k people)
- Total fatal crashes: 2163 (7.3% involving a large truck)
#25. Oregon
- Fatal crashes involving a large truck: 64 (1.5 per 100k people)
- Total fatal crashes: 688 (9.3% involving a large truck)
#24. Arizona
- Fatal crashes involving a large truck: 111 (1.5 per 100k people)
- Total fatal crashes: 1469 (7.6% involving a large truck)
#23. Florida
- Fatal crashes involving a large truck: 351 (1.6 per 100k people)
- Total fatal crashes: 4846 (7.2% involving a large truck)
#22. West Virginia
- Fatal crashes involving a large truck: 34 (1.9 per 100k people)
- Total fatal crashes: 370 (9.2% involving a large truck)
#21. Missouri
- Fatal crashes involving a large truck: 125 (2.0 per 100k people)
- Total fatal crashes: 1373 (9.1% involving a large truck)
#20. Iowa
- Fatal crashes involving a large truck: 67 (2.1 per 100k people)
- Total fatal crashes: 467 (14.3% involving a large truck)
#19. Louisiana
- Fatal crashes involving a large truck: 98 (2.1 per 100k people)
- Total fatal crashes: 1133 (8.6% involving a large truck)
#18. Texas
- Fatal crashes involving a large truck: 622 (2.1 per 100k people)
- Total fatal crashes: 5460 (11.4% involving a large truck)
#17. Georgia
- Fatal crashes involving a large truck: 230 (2.1 per 100k people)
- Total fatal crashes: 2387 (9.6% involving a large truck)
#16. Indiana
- Fatal crashes involving a large truck: 148 (2.2 per 100k people)
- Total fatal crashes: 1254 (11.8% involving a large truck)
#15. North Dakota
- Fatal crashes involving a large truck: 18 (2.3 per 100k people)
- Total fatal crashes: 136 (13.2% involving a large truck)
#14. South Carolina
- Fatal crashes involving a large truck: 119 (2.3 per 100k people)
- Total fatal crashes: 1432 (8.3% involving a large truck)
#13. Kansas
- Fatal crashes involving a large truck: 69 (2.4 per 100k people)
- Total fatal crashes: 578 (11.9% involving a large truck)
#12. Oklahoma
- Fatal crashes involving a large truck: 94 (2.4 per 100k people)
- Total fatal crashes: 916 (10.3% involving a large truck)
#11. Tennessee
- Fatal crashes involving a large truck: 165 (2.4 per 100k people)
- Total fatal crashes: 1722 (9.6% involving a large truck)
#10. Montana
- Fatal crashes involving a large truck: 27 (2.5 per 100k people)
- Total fatal crashes: 243 (11.1% involving a large truck)
#9. Kentucky
- Fatal crashes involving a large truck: 114 (2.5 per 100k people)
- Total fatal crashes: 1074 (10.6% involving a large truck)
#8. New Mexico
- Fatal crashes involving a large truck: 56 (2.6 per 100k people)
- Total fatal crashes: 540 (10.4% involving a large truck)
#7. Idaho
- Fatal crashes involving a large truck: 49 (2.7 per 100k people)
- Total fatal crashes: 300 (16.3% involving a large truck)
#6. Nebraska
- Fatal crashes involving a large truck: 53 (2.7 per 100k people)
- Total fatal crashes: 333 (15.9% involving a large truck)
#5. South Dakota
- Fatal crashes involving a large truck: 24 (2.7 per 100k people)
- Total fatal crashes: 191 (12.6% involving a large truck)
#4. Alabama
- Fatal crashes involving a large truck: 138 (2.7 per 100k people)
- Total fatal crashes: 1306 (10.6% involving a large truck)
#3. Arkansas
- Fatal crashes involving a large truck: 84 (2.8 per 100k people)
- Total fatal crashes: 847 (9.9% involving a large truck)
#2. Mississippi
- Fatal crashes involving a large truck: 84 (2.8 per 100k people)
- Total fatal crashes: 969 (8.7% involving a large truck)
#1. Wyoming
- Fatal crashes involving a large truck: 33 (5.7 per 100k people)
- Total fatal crashes: 174 (19.0% involving a large truck)
This story originally appeared on Walkup, Melodia, Kelly & Schoenberger and was produced and distributed in partnership with Stacker Studio.
Star-Tribune staff writer Sofia Saric contributed to this report.
Joshua Wolfson
Editor
Joshua Wolfson joined the Star-Tribune in 2007, covering crime and health before taking over the arts section in 2013. He also served as managing editor before being named editor in June 2017. He lives in Casper with his wife and their two kids.
