WYOMING – Just three weeks into 2019 and Wyoming is off at a disturbing pace regarding highway fatalities. Weather is being attributed to the latest two deaths on state highways.
Wyoming Highway Patrol troopers were dispatched Sunday, January 20 at around 9:32am to a two-vehicle collision occurring at milepost 172 on Interstate 80 west of Wamsutter, Wyo.
A 2004 Toyota Tundra traveling eastbound on Interstate 80 crossed the median and entered the westbound lane. The Toyota collided head-on with a 2019 Freightliner Conventional.
The driver of the Toyota has been identified as 22-year-old Brandon M. Bivens of Tulsa, Oklahoma. The passenger has been identified as Michael J. Bivens, 59, also of Tulsa. The driver and passenger were both wearing seatbelts and succumbed to injuries sustained in the crash.
The driver of the Freightliner Conventional was wearing his seatbelt and sustained minor injuries. The passenger in the Freightliner was transported to the Memorial Hospital in Rawlins, Wyoming.
Driving too fast for road conditions is being investigated on the part of Bivens as a contributing factor to the crash. The road conditions were slick with blowing snow.
This is the 8th and 9th fatality on Wyoming’s highways in 2019 compared to 3 in 2018, 2 in 2017, and 3 in 2016 to date.
