JANUARY 28, 2025|
Photo – Snowplow safety poster – Courtesy WYDOT
Following the report of two snowplows hit by drivers on Saturday, another WYDOT plow truck was nearly hit by a semitruck while clearing snow from Interstate 80 on Monday morning.
So far this year, four Wyoming Department of Transportation snowplows have been struck in our area. Yesterday morning, another plow almost became the fifth.
WYDOT District One Senior Public Relations Specialist Andrea Staley reported that at 9:00 a.m. Monday morning, a WYDOT snowplow operator was clearing snow from the westbound emergency lane of I-80, at milepost 326.6 on the Blair-Wallis bridge. Two commercial trucks, one in the travel lane and another in the passing lane, approached the slower moving plow truck while crossing the bridge. The commercial driver in the right-hand lane failed to yield or slow to the plow, forcing the plow operator to make evasive maneuvers to avoid being rear ended or sideswiped. As a result, the plow driver collided with the right-hand guardrail.
Wyoming Highway Patrol troopers pursued the commercial truck driver and eventually initiated a traffic stop.
Senior Public Relations Specialist Staley reminds everyone that Wyoming Statute 31-5-224 requires drivers to yield the right-of-way to emergency vehicles and move over to allow them to pass. The statute also applies to maintenance workers, such as highway construction, public utility workers, and, in this case, snowplow operators.
Neither driver was injured in the incident. The driver of the commercial truck received a citation from Highway Patrol. The WYDOT plow sustained minor damage, as did the guardrail.
