Tow Truck Operator Injured After Being Hit by Pickup on I-80 Near Wamsutter
A tow truck operator was injured Wednesday morning after being struck by a pickup truck while recovering vehicles from a previous crash on Interstate 80 near Wamsutter, Wyoming, according to the Wyoming Highway Patrol. The operator was subsequently life-flighted to receive medical treatment.
The incident occurred around 9 a.m. on Wednesday, west of Wamsutter. The initial crash, involving two tractor-trailer units, had taken place the previous night, forcing the vehicles to be left in place due to hazardous road conditions. One of the commercial vehicles had lost its load of lumber.
“Due to hazardous conditions, the vehicles were left in place overnight,” read a statement released Wednesday afternoon by the Wyoming Highway Patrol.
During the recovery process, the lumber was being reloaded onto its trailer in the median, away from the travel lanes. A pickup truck approaching the scene then lost control, striking a member of the tow recovery team.
Cody Stevens, a Rock Springs resident, witnessed the chain of events that appeared to be the Wednesday morning collision. Driving to work, Stevens saw semitrucks off the road: one overturned and the other on its wheels. He described an “orangish colored Ford pickup truck” coming down the hill, spinning out, and hitting the semi or pickup behind it.
Stevens said some vehicles were transferring lumber off a semitruck. He added that the pickup truck “bounced off, spun about three times and ended up in the westbound lane.”
Stevens theorized that the pickup truck’s driver had not anticipated the icy conditions. “I think (the driver) thought he was in the clear on the wet, and then he hit that ice,” Stevens stated. “The whole road was a solid sheet of ice, both lanes, from Rock Springs to there.”
Lance Paul Scarpellino, in dash cam video posted to Facebook on Wednesday, drove past the scene after multiple tow trucks had already responded. The crash with the pickup had not happened, as indicated in the video, and Scarpellino urged people to “be careful out there.”
