FORT LARAMIE — An 84-year-old Fort Laramie man succumbed to injuries he sustained in a UTV crash Wednesday, according to the Wyoming Highway Patrol (WHP).
On January 18 a fatal crash occurred at milepost 29.5 on Highway 26, west of Fort Laramie, Wyoming. At 8:46 a.m., WHP troopers were notified of a UTV rollover on the adjacent Service Road.
A 2020 Kubota RTV-XG850 was westbound on a service road that ran parallel to the railroad tracks. The driver of the Kubota was assisting in the movement of cattle in the area and failed to notice a mound of gravel on the roadway. The Kubota collided with the gravel and overturned.
The driver of the Kubota has been identified as Maurice E. Jepson, an 84-year-old resident of Fort Laramie, Wyoming. Jepson was not wearing a seatbelt and succumbed to his injuries at the crash scene.
The roadway was snow-covered at the time of the crash.
Driver inattention is being investigated as a possible contributing factor.
This is the fifth fatality on Wyoming’s roadways in 2023 compared to one in 2022, 8 in 2021, and two in 2020.
