A 77-year-old Vinita man is dead after his vehicle was struck at a Mayes County intersection where another driver allegedly failed to yield from a stop sign, in a crash that happened Sunday afternoon along State Highway 82. Gary Goodman died from injuries sustained in the wreck, which occurred near Highway 82 and County Road 350 shortly before 3 p.m.
Oklahoma Highway Patrol troopers responded to the crash scene, according to preliminary information reported by KOKH. Investigators say a vehicle driven by an Edmond man failed to yield from a stop sign and was struck by another vehicle. Goodman, who lived in nearby Vinita in Craig County, died as a result of the collision, and officials say the crash remains under investigation.
Highway 82 serves as a major north-south connector tying Mayes County communities like Locust Grove and Salina to neighboring Craig County, where Goodman lived, according to Inspire Mayes County. That regional link helps explain why Goodman, a Vinita resident, was traveling the corridor when the fatal crash occurred.
A Legal Framework With Teeth for Fatal Failure-to-Yield Crashes
Oklahoma law requires drivers approaching a stop sign to yield the right-of-way to vehicles already in the intersection or close enough to pose an immediate hazard, under Title 47 Section 11-403(B) of state statute. Per Lawter & Associates Attorneys at Law, courts can tack on an extra $500 penalty and suspend a driver's license for up to 90 days when a failure-to-yield infraction causes a death or severe injury. Under the state's standard citation code schedule, a basic failure-to-yield-from-a-stop-sign violation is designated code RW3 and ordinarily carries a baseline $100 fine, according to the Oklahoma Department of Public Safety's violation schedule — a routine penalty that can be significantly enhanced when a crash proves fatal.
No charges have been announced against the Edmond driver as of this report, and whether speed, weather, or distraction played any role in the crash has not been disclosed. The condition of any surviving occupants involved in the wreck also has not been released.
Third Fatal Crash in Mayes County Within Two Weeks
Goodman's death marks the third fatal crash reported in Mayes County in less than two weeks. Eight days earlier, on September 26, a 57-year-old Pryor man was killed when his vehicle left the roadway at a curve along the same highway and struck a sign and a tree, Hoodline previously reported. Two days before that crash, a Chouteau man died in a separate wreck on U.S. Highway 412 elsewhere in the county.
Federal Fatality Analysis Reporting System data shows Mayes County has recorded 105 fatal crashes, ranking it among the top 11 counties in Oklahoma for overall traffic deaths. The stretch of Highway 82 running through Mayes County toward U.S. Highway 66 is officially designated the Cliff Bogle Memorial Highway under Title 69 of Oklahoma Statutes, and the Oklahoma Department of Transportation has previously advanced design plans for safety improvements along the corridor after finding that vertical and horizontal curves restricted driver sight lines in some sections.
Rural Highways Carry Outsized Risk Statewide
The dangers along corridors like Highway 82 reflect a broader pattern across Oklahoma's rural road network. A 2026 report by national transportation research group TRIP, using Oklahoma Department of Transportation data, found the traffic fatality rate on the state's non-interstate rural roads reached 2.08 deaths per 100 million vehicle miles traveled in 2023 — 62 percent higher than the rate on all other roadways in the state. The same TRIP report found 639 people died in vehicle collisions across Oklahoma in 2025, part of 4,127 traffic fatalities statewide between 2020 and 2025.
A driving safety study cited by KOKH FOX 25 in September ranked Oklahoma fourth overall among U.S. states for bad driving behaviors, including the eighth-highest national rate of fatal crashes involving drivers who failed to obey traffic signs and signals. Investigators have not determined whether that pattern played any role in Sunday's crash, and the case remains under investigation.
