Utah Man Dies In Wrong-Way Head-On Crash On I-80 Near Evanston

A Utah man driving the wrong way on Interstate 80 died over the weekend after colliding head-on with a semitrailer near Evanston.

The Wyoming Highway Patrol confirmed Monday that Duane Derrick, 40, of Logan, Utah, was driving a Chevy pickup the wrong way in the interstate at about 2 p.m. Saturday.

According to witnesses and evidence collected at the scene, Derrick was driving eastbound in the westbound lanes before the collision. 

He died at the scene, the WHP reports. The driver of the semitrailer was transported to a local hospital, where he was treated and released.

The Wyoming Highway Patrol was not available for additional comment at the time of publication.

‘How Did He Not See Him?’

Paige Sequeira of Ogden, Utah, shot a video of the aftermath of Saturday’s accident as she was traveling along I-80. 

Her reaction and what she captured on her phone paints a harrowing picture.

The Chevy pickup was beyond totaled. The entire vehicle was smashed into a tangled mess of metal, with wheels nearly twisted off their axles.

The semitrailer was hundreds of feet away, having driven off the highway and down an embankment toward a housing development. 

Its forward engine and drive axle were nearly severed from the rest of the cab, a testament to the force of the impact.

The shoulder was covered with large debris from both vehicles.

Sequeria openly questioned, “How did he not see him?”

According to the Wyoming Highway Patrol, both vehicles “reacted and swerved to the north shoulder, colliding head-on.” 

Derrick was wearing his seat belt when the collision happened, WHP reports.

Rough Start

Derrick’s death was the seventh fatality on Wyoming’s roadways so far in 2026. There were six fatalities at this point in 2025, and two in 2024.

Wyoming is already one of the deadliest states for trucking. 

Statistics compiled by the Truck Safety Coalition, a Washington, D.C.-based advocacy organization, show Wyoming had seven fatalities per 100,000 population in the last year, topping the list as the deadliest state.

According to the Wyoming Department of Transportation’s crash data, 90% of commercial motor vehicle crashes on I-80 involve non-Wyoming resident drivers, and 78% of those crashes happened during inclement weather.

Saturday’s crash was another on what truckers call “The Gauntlet,” the stretch of I-80 through Wyoming that runs between Evanston and Pine Bluffs. However, analyses like these are often skewed by Wyoming’s small population.

“In a rural state like Wyoming, with one of the smallest populations but some of the highest truck miles traveled per capita in the nation, even a small number of crashes can dramatically skew the results,” Kevin Hawley, president of the Wyoming Trucking Association, previously told Cowboy State Daily. “This makes Wyoming appear ‘deadlier’ than larger states with far higher crash totals.”

Andrew Rossi can be reached at arossi@cowboystatedaily.com.