WHP: Guardrail Pierced Semi During Deadly I-80 Crash

The Wyoming Highway Patrol says driver inattention and cell phone use may be to blame for a rollover crash on Interstate 80 that left a trucker dead.

The crash happened around 6 p.m. yesterday, Aug. 21, near mile marker 66, just south of Granger.

Wyoming Highway Patrol

According to a fatality crash summary, 56-year-old Idaho resident Safet Zornic was driving in a single-lane construction zone when he failed to negotiate a slight right-hand curve and lost control of his rig, causing it to trip and slide on its passenger side.

"The vehicle slid into a guardrail end where the guardrail pierced the vehicle," the summary reads.

Zornic was not wearing his seat belt and died from his injuries.

This is the 93rd fatality on Wyoming's highways in 2023 compared to 78 in 2022, 72 in 2021, 79 in 2020, and 106 in 2019 to date; and the second trucker to die in a rollover crash on I-80 in Sweetwater County in the last week.

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2022's Deadliest Wyoming County by Traffic Deaths

While car crashes can occur anywhere, some roads in Wyoming are more dangerous than others.

According to Wyoming Highway Patrol data, there were 117 fatal crashes in the Cowboy State in 2022 resulting in 133 deaths.

Of those fatal crashes, the majority (13.68%) occurred in Laramie County -- two in January, one in February, one in March, two in April, one in June, two in July, three in August, two in September, one in November, and one in December.

Sweetwater County saw the second most fatal crashes last year, 12, while Fremont and Lincoln counties each saw 10.

Albany and Park counties each recorded eight, and Campbell, Converse, and Natrona counties each tallied seven.

The deadliest 2022 crash in Laramie County took place on June 17 when two semis collided on Interstate 80 east of Cheyenne and immediately became engulfed in flames killing both drivers and a passenger.

Laramie County also saw two fatal crashes involving motorcyclists, two fatal crashes involving juveniles, and a fatal crash involving a pedestrian last year.

Below is the Wyoming Highway Patrol narrative of every fatal crash that occurred in Laramie County in 2022.