Two Dead in Crash on Slick I-80 in Southern Wyoming
Two Oklahoma residents are dead and one person was hospitalized following a crash which took place on Interstate 80 Sunday morning.
Michael J. Bivens, 59, and Brandon M. Bivens, 22, both of Tulsa Oklahoma, succumbed to injuries sustained in the crash, which was reported to the Wyoming Highway Patrol shortly after 9:30 a.m.
One other person, who had been a passenger in a commercial truck, was taken to Carbon County Memorial Hospital in Rawlins with minor injuries.
Wyoming Highway Patrol Sgt. Jeremy Beck said in a statement Tuesday that the crash occurred at milepost 172 west of Wamsutter. A 2004 Toyota Tundra, driven by Michael Bivens, had been eastbound when it crossed the median and entered the westbound lane.
The Tundra collided head-on with a westbound commercial truck. All four of the people involved in the crash were wearing their seatbelts at the time.
Beck says the Patrol is investigating whether Bivens was driving too fast for road conditions as a potential contributing factor. At the time of the wreck, that portion of I-80 was slick with blowing snow.
The crash brought about the eighth and ninth highway fatalities in Wyoming for 2019 -- triple the number of deaths by this point in the year for each of the past three years.