JULY 10, 2025 |
The truck driver responsible for a deadly crash on Interstate 80 in March has been sentenced to 90 days in jail.
On July 8th, forty-seven-year-old Borys Bakhtiarov, a commercial truck driver for Oregon-based VJR Express, pleaded no contest to Homicide by Vehicle for the March 15th death of Mary Couch. Bakhtiarov was sentenced by the Carbon County Circuit Court to 90 days in jail and one year of probation.
At approximately 9:00 a.m. on Saturday, March 15th, Wyoming Highway Patrol Trooper Timothy Howell responded to a crash at mile marker 215 in the eastbound lanes of Interstate 80. Trooper Howell wrote in his Probable Cause Affidavit that Bakhtiarov, the driver of a white Freightliner, crossed the center median, crashing through a guardrail and cable barrier, before colliding head-on with a red Freightliner, driven by 63-year-old James Byars. Seventy-year-old Mary Couch, who was in the sleeper cab of Byars’s truck, was killed. Byars himself suffered serious bodily injuries.
Carbon County prosecutors made the decision to charge Bakhtiarov, who was arrested and taken to the Carbon County Detention Center. The driver was charged with Homicide by Vehicle and Failure to Drive Vehicle Within a Single Lane.
On July 8th, Bakhtiarov appeared in Carbon County Circuit Court, where, with the help of an interpreter, he entered a plea of No Contest to Homicide by Vehicle. The charge of Failure to Drive Within a Single Lane was dropped at the recommendation of the Carbon County Prosecutor’s Office. The defendant was also fined $1,000 and ordered to pay $220 in court costs and victim compensation fees.
Bakhtiarov was sentenced to 90 days in the Carbon County Detention Center, with four days credit for time served. Upon release, the defendant will begin one year of unsupervised probation.
