Full Semitrailer Smashes Through Shed, House In Upton

A semitruck pulling a pump and a belly dump trailer full of bentonite smashed through the side of a storage shed and a vehicle, then continued to tear halfway through a house Monday in Upton, Wyoming, locals say.

Eric Kregel and his wife Nicole, of Kregel Towing and Recovery, responded to the scene at about 7 a.m. and were there for more than 13 hours cleaning up wreckage and bentonite, Eric Kregel told Cowboy State Daily on Tuesday.

The semitruck had come into town headed north on Highway 116, and instead of stopping at the main thoroughfare of Highway 16, the truck drove through it and smashed into a storage shed, then a vehicle, then plunged into a nearby home, Kregel related from the scene.

He said he believed the driver may have needed stitches, but otherwise everyone was OK. Though it rained intermittently Monday, Kregel said he wasn’t concerned that the bentonite would turn into a slippery disaster.

Mickie Remington, owner of Remy’s Diner, was running about four minutes late for work that day, she told Cowboy State Daily, adding that her diner opens at 7 a.m.

She believes that the truck driver may have fallen asleep as he barreled down the hill, Remington said.

‘Disintegrated’

Remington owns and rents out both the storage shed and the home on the lot. The man who rents the storage shed shares the space with her and accesses his electrical equipment from it. Remington also uses the space for storage and had recently moved many of her kids’ keepsakes into the space, she said.

“All that was disintegrated all over the ground,” said Remington.

The shop itself is “obliterated,” she added, and she managed to salvage just some metal and “a few little pictures.”

The people who use the shop were not in it when the truck crashed through, Remington said.

When the semitruck plunged into the home Remington rents to her tenant of eight years, it shifted about 6 inches off its foundation, she said.

“It took the entire kitchen, laundry room and most of his bedroom,” Remington said. “It pushed his bedroom out the other wall — out the other side.”

So Blessed

Fortunately for the tenant, he was having an unusual morning. Instead of showering and starting up his truck, he chose to lie back down in bed. The semitruck pushed him into the opposite end of the house, but he wasn’t hurt, Remington said.

Remington considers it strange and beautiful that she, the people who use the storage shed, and her house tenant all were off-schedule that morning. She could just as easily been arriving in that area for work when the collision happened, she said.

“God’s hand was in everything,” said Remington. “I’m just so lucky that everybody made it out safe and sound.”

That includes the truck driver, she said, adding that the driver is a local man whom she knows.

“When he got out of the truck, I was absolutely amazed that he wasn’t decapitated,” Remington said, adding that the man was taken to the hospital but was back on the site within two hours. He walked into Remington’s business, apologized, and gave her his insurance information.

“I was so thankful he was alive,” she added.

Weston County Sheriff Bryan Colvard said the Wyoming Highway Patrol is investigating the incident since it involves a commercial vehicle. He confirmed that no one was jailed in connection with the crash. 

The Wyoming Highway Patrol did not immediately answer a list of questions Tuesday morning.

Contact Clair McFarland at clair@cowboystatedaily.com

Clair McFarland can be reached at clair@cowboystatedaily.com.