BEAR RIVER — A 31-year-old Bear River man was killed Friday afternoon when the car he was driving was T-boned by a pickup truck on Wyoming Hwy 89 in Bear River. Skylar Kauffman was pronounced dead at the scene after firefighters, EMTs and members of the Wyoming Highway Patrol and Uinta County Sheriff’s Office responded to the call around 3:20 p.m. on Oct. 4.

WHP Lt. Matt Arnell told the Herald Kaufmann was driving west on Appaloosa Drive when he slowed down but didn’t stop at the stop sign while driving a Pontiac Grand Prix and turned left onto Hwy 89. 

“The pickup braked and tried to swerve but was unable to avoid a collision,” Arnell said. 

The pickup, a 2018 Chevrolet Silverado, was traveling northbound and crashed into Kaufmann’s driver’s side door. Both vehicles came to rest several feet off the highway across the street from the Bear River Town Hall. 

Arnell said Kauffman was not wearing a seatbelt at the time of the collision.

According to a WHP press release issued Monday, the driver of the pickup was 74-year-old Salt Lake City resident Robert J. Davis.  Davis was wearing his seatbelt and sustained minor injuries. He was treated at the scene Friday. One of the two passengers in the Chevrolet has been identified as 22-year-old Salt Lake City resident Jonathan Whitmore. Whitmore was wearing his seatbelt and not injured in the crash. The other passenger in the Chevrolet has been identified 72-year-old Salt Lake City resident Connie L. Davis. She was wearing her seatbelt and not injured. 

Driver inattention on the part of Kauffman is being investigated as a possible contributing factor.

 This is the 125th fatality on Wyoming’s roadways in 2019 compared to 90 in 2018, 111 in 2017, and 94 in 2016, to date.