One trooper injured in Interstate-80 Collision

A Wyoming Highway Patrol trooper seated in his idling patrol car near Arlington suffered minor injuries Monday morning when his vehicle was struck while he completed an investigation of an earlier jackknifed semi-trailer.

The collision occurred just after 8 a.m. on westbound Interstate 80 in Carbon County, approximately 1½ miles east of the Arlington Interchange, according to a Highway Patrol media release. Roadways in the area were icy. Variable message signs had the speed on both eastbound and westbound lanes reduced to 55 mph.

Trooper Kaycee Shroyer was seated in his parked patrol car in the median off the paved portion of the roadway with his emergency lights activated at the time of the crash. It occurred when the driver of a westbound 1-ton pickup pulling a trailer lost control of his vehicle. The combination jackknifed as it went across the driving and passing lane and slammed into the rear of the patrol car.

Shroyer was taken via ambulance to Ivinson Memorial Hospital in Laramie, where he was treated and released with minor injuries. The patrol car sustained heavy damage and will be declared a total loss.

The driver of the pickup, 24-year-old Brian P. Stockhan of Boulder, Colo., was not injured. Stockhan was transporting cylinders of compressed nitrogen and oxygen in the trailer.

Stockhan was cited for driving too fast for the existing conditions and transporting a hazardous material without hazardous material placards. The collision remains under investigation, and additional charges may be pending.

State law requires drivers on the interstate to stay in the lane farthest from the stopped emergency vehicle. Wyoming Highway Patrol Major Keith Groeneweg said troopers will have zero tolerance for those who disregard the state's move-over law and who are traveling at speeds too fast for the existing conditions.