Moose crash totals Laramie-area couple’s car, carcass disappears before salvage

A pre-dawn moose strike on Wyoming Highway 230 near WyoColo left Tim Wyland with a totaled Volkswagen Passat, minor injuries and a second loss no driver expects: the carcass disappeared before he and Lindsey Williams could salvage it for meat.

Wyland was driving toward Saratoga about 5:20 a.m. Monday when he saw three moose in one lane and swerved, only to hit a fourth animal in the other lane. He said he was traveling about 45 mph when the collision became unavoidable. The moose died instantly. Wyland walked away with a glass cut near his left eye and minor cuts on his back, but the car was destroyed.

The crash also put a spotlight on Wyoming’s roadkill rules, which are more specific than many drivers realize. Wyoming Game and Fish allows salvage only with prior approval through the 511 WYO ROADS app. The whole animal must be collected, not just selected cuts, and collection is not allowed at night. The rules also bar salvage on Interstate 25, Interstate 80 and Interstate 90, and meat taken from roadkill cannot be donated to a nonprofit organization.

That framework is designed to keep salvage organized and lawful, but it also leaves little room for confusion once a carcass has been claimed. In this case, Wyland and Williams checked in with Game and Fish and filed the required form, but someone else returned to the site before they could recover the animal, removed much of the meat and ruined the rest. The result was a particularly Wyoming kind of double loss: first the vehicle, then the moose.

The incident fits a broader statewide pattern. Game and Fish says Wyoming averages more than 7,600 collisions with big game each year, and both Game and Fish and the Wyoming Department of Transportation have said that figure is likely an undercount because some carcasses are never reported or are scavenged before they are tallied. WYDOT and Game and Fish also say wildlife crossings paired with fencing can reduce crashes by 80% to 90%, and the Trappers Point project west of Pinedale cut vehicle-wildlife collisions in the area by more than 80% after the overpass opened in 2012.

For Albany County drivers, the message is plain. Roads west and south of Laramie can turn dangerous fast in low light, especially when moose are moving near the pavement, and a collision can quickly become a legal and financial problem as well as a safety one.