Why High Winds Are So Dangerous for Semi-Trucks on Wyoming Highways

The overhead sign west of Laramie warned oncoming drivers, “Closed to light, high-profile vehicles under 40,000 pounds; extreme blow over risk.”

Your SUV isn’t on that list, so you shrug as you blow past the sign and keep heading west on I-80. So does that semi in front of you. Near Elk Mountain, a gust catches the semi’s empty trailer, tips it up onto one set of wheels, and the whole rig tips over on its side right in front of you. Everything happens too fast for you to avoid a collision.

The trucking company’s insurer will probably blame the wind. But that wind was in the forecast and on the overhead signs hours before the crash happened. In a lot of Wyoming truck accidents like this one, the real question is why the truck was still on the road. Here’ why wind tips semis, why I-80 and I-25 get the worst of it, and what law expects from the driver.

How a Crosswind Turns a Trailer Into a Sail

The side of a 53-foot box trailer is a flat wall of sheet metal longer than a city bus. A Wyoming crosswind pushes on all of it at once, and it pushes high, well above where most of the truck’s weight holds it down. So along with shoving the rig sideways, the persistent wind tries to roll the trailer over its downwind wheels. Weight holds it to the road. A full trailer can lean into a gust and settle back, but an empty one has too little weight to fight back with. When truckers talk about crosswind stability for tractor-trailers, they’re mostly talking about how much is in the box.

A gust doesn’t have to tip a truck to cause someone harm, though. A hard push can move a rig several feet into your lane or drop its wheels off the shoulder, so the driver overcorrects back across traffic. Ice makes all of it worse, because tires that can’t grip the road can’t hold a truck in its lane.

Why I-80 and I-25 Catch the Worst of Wyoming’s Wind

WYDOT talks about the hurricane-force winds Wyoming can get, which is a strange thing to read about a place with no coastline. West winds come down off the mountains, speed up through gaps in the ranges and cross open country with nothing to slow them. The National Weather Service in Cheyenne posts a two-day hourly wind forecast for I-80 at Arlington and Buford and for I-25 at Bordeaux and Wyo Hill. When it issues I-80 high wind warnings for that area, it has named the stretch between about mile markers 240 and 290, right where the semi in front of you fell over.

Closed Means Closed, Even on a Delivery Deadline

Let’s say that semi’s trailer was empty and the rig weighed about 30,000 pounds. In that case, the sign west of Laramie told the driver in plain numbers to stay off the road. Since 2023, WYDOT has posted a minimum vehicle weight on its wind closures. It also advises anyone struggling to keep control in the wind to pull over at a rest area or a town and wait.

Among the FMCSA’s extreme weather rules, the one on hazardous conditions tells truck drivers to slow down whenever snow, ice, fog, dust, or similar conditions hurt visibility or traction. Wind isn’t on that list. The list is only a set of examples, though, and Wyoming wind tends to bring blowing snow and ice along with it. If conditions get dangerous enough, the rule says the driver must stop until the truck can be driven safely. Another federal rule says trucks have to follow state law wherever they drive, and that includes the closure on the overhead sign.

Since July 2024, a driver who willfully ignores a closure to light, high-profile vehicles faces a $1000 fine and up to 30 days in jail. The driver pays that fine even if a dispatcher pushed to keep the load moving. In a lawsuit, a jury can weigh the closure, the posted weight, and the truck’s real weight as evidence of negligent driving in high winds.

The Wind Didn’t Drive the Truck

Sooner or later, the insurance company will call the crash an act of God. This is a phrase courts use when referring to events so sudden that no careful person could have seen them coming. That defense, however, gets considerably weaker when a driver’s own choices helped cause the crash. A wind gust might feel sudden, but it’s hard to call it ‘sudden’ when the Weather Service forecasts it by the hour and WYDOT posted in on its signs.

Proving what the driver knew takes records, and some of them don’t last long. Your lawyer will want:

• The Weather Service warnings and WYDOT’s posted closure for that stretch
• The bill of lading and scale tickets, which show whether the truck was heavy enough to pass the sign
• The driver’s electronic logs and messages with dispatch

A carrier only has to keep a driver’s logs for six months, so your lawyer will ask the company in writing to save everything right away. The driver isn’t always the only one responsible. A trucking company can be liable for wind accidents if that company sent an empty trailer into a forecast windstorm. In Wyoming, a jury can assign fault to a company that isn’t in the lawsuit, and nobody pays you for that share.

Talk to Us Before the Insurer Blames the Weather

A blow over might look like bad luck from the shoulder of I-80. The reality, though, is that most of them happen because of decisions made hours earlier because of a forecast or a road closure that went ignored. At Edwards Law Office, P.C., we go looking for that decision. Jack Edwards has practiced law in Wyoming for more than 20 years, and our firm stays small, so every client gets personal attention.

If a semi hit you or blew over in front of you on a Wyoming highway, reach out to our firm for a free consultation with an Etna personal injury lawyer. Until then, see a doctor, write down which signs you passed and about when, and save any dashcam video from your vehicle while the details are fresh.