Trooper Injured After Semi Slams Patrol Car on I-80: Witness Says Drivers Ignored Crash Scene

A Wyoming Highway Patrol trooper was injured Tuesday morning when a semitruck plowed into his patrol vehicle on Interstate 80 near Rawlins—and a witness says the bigger issue is that too many drivers simply didn’t slow down.

According to WHP, the trooper was wrapping up at the scene of an earlier crash around mile marker 201 just before noon. As he tried to turn into the median from the shoulder, a westbound semi hit the left side of his patrol SUV.

The trooper was taken to Memorial Hospital of Carbon County with minor injuries and released later the same day. The truck driver walked away unharmed and wasn’t cited.

Pinedale resident Paul Ulrich had come across the first wreck—the one the trooper had been handling—just minutes after it happened.

“A family of four had hit a guardrail after a semi forced them off the road,” Ulrich said. “The semi was weaving, crossed into the eastbound lanes, and somehow didn’t take anyone out. Honestly, I was shocked.”

Ulrich stopped to help until deputies and EMTs arrived. But what stuck with him most wasn’t just the accident—it was the other drivers.

Ulrich said while he and others were helping at the scene, vehicles on I-80 barely acknowledged what was happening.

“There were multiple cars pulled over, people clearly in distress, and traffic wasn’t even slowing down,” he said. “It was frustrating—and one of the reasons I got out of there. It didn’t feel safe.”

Even after law enforcement showed up with flashing emergency lights, Ulrich said the flow of traffic didn’t change.

“Traffic kept speeding along like nothing was happening,” he said. “The lack of situational awareness was disturbing.”

This isn’t the first time responders have been hit on Wyoming’s busiest highway. In December 2022, a semi slammed into a Rawlins ambulance at another crash scene, killing one crew member and seriously injuring another.

For Ulrich, what happened Tuesday is part of a larger problem: too many drivers failing to respect active crash scenes.

“When you respond to an accident on the highway, you’re putting your life in your hands,” he said. “From what I saw, it wasn’t that drivers were reacting the wrong way—they weren’t reacting at all.”

The Wyoming Highway Patrol is reminding drivers that state law requires them to slow down and yield to emergency vehicles. As this week’s crash shows, failing to do so puts lives at risk.

The original story by Andrew Rossi for Cowboy State Daily.