Roman Wesley Parra, Colorado rollover crash: Driver from Wyoming dies days later after ejecting in high-speed wreck

Weld County Road 80 near Ault, Colorado. That’s where it all started for Roman Wesley Parra back on July 25. The 20-year-old from Worland, Wyoming, was behind the wheel of a Chevrolet Tahoe, rolling east with four buddies from Eaton and Greeley. The car tore down the road at a clip, hit the ditch on the right, bounced back, spun and flipped. All five got thrown clear. Three young guys from Eaton and Greeley never made it to the hospital. Roman was airlifted in serious shape. He fought for over a week, then Sunday he was gone.

His family back home in Wyoming still can’t believe it. Roman had played football at Worland High School, loved the game, loved hanging with his dad fixing up that old truck. The suspension needed work but they never finished it. Now that truck sits in the yard like it might drive him somewhere someday. His mom told reporters the doctors ran him through brain surgery the minute he got there. The odds looked awful. She said she thought that was it. But he kept going, holding on against the doctors’ advice.

The crash happened right where County Roads 80 and 39 cross, east of Ault. Speed was a big piece of it. So were those open and closed beer cans they found inside the Tahoe. Colorado State Patrol is still sorting out the rest. No one knows exactly what happened in the split second before the rollover, but everyone on that road that night knew better than to be tearing down a two-lane strip like that with a full load of kids their age.

Roman’s buddies from Eaton, Cash Rinker, Jack Dirksen, and Cooper Nider, and the one who got off with just a bruise, they were all 2025 graduates of Eaton High. Four of them. They played baseball, partied, lived normal kid lives. Then one second changed everything.

Now Roman’s gone, and the whole group is scattered. His Wyoming family keeps saying they want folks to remember the good parts, the football, the truck, the laughs. Not this. Not the ditch. Not the flip. Not the drinks. Just the kid who loved life.

The cause is still under investigation, but one thing’s clear. Five young men, four of them fresh off high school, all of them in one Tahoe on a Friday night. One roll. Four gone before they even knew what hit them.