Two people died Wednesday after a two-vehicle crash unfolded in front of Riverton’s Walmart, drawing passersby from both sides of the city’s busiest road, North Federal Boulevard.
The crash was reported around 8:15 p.m.
A white Dodge pickup with a crunched hood sat on its side in the middle of the road, while the mangled remains of what witnesses said had been a black Jeep sat upright nearly a half-block south of the pickup, on the northbound lane of the road.
Police, emergency medical personnel and the Riverton Volunteer Fire Department converged. People on the scene pulled one man out of the pickup. The man was bleeding.
“I asked him what the year was,” said Trent Hallada, who was walking in the area and felt debris, “possibly” hit his eye when the crash happened. “He couldn’t even say the date and year.”
A Dodge pickup involved in a double fatal car crash Wednesday evening lay on its side before wreckers righted it and winched it onto a trailer. The driver of the pickup tried to flee the scene, one witness said (Clair McFarland, Cowboy State Daily) 
A Dodge pickup involved in a double fatal car crash Wednesday evening lay on its side before wreckers righted it and winched it onto a trailer. The driver of the pickup tried to flee the scene, one witness said (Clair McFarland, Cowboy State Daily) 
A Dodge pickup involved in a double fatal car crash Wednesday evening lay on its side before wreckers righted it and winched it onto a trailer. The driver of the pickup tried to flee the scene, one witness said (Clair McFarland, Cowboy State Daily)
Two more eyewitnesses, who both declined to be identified by name, said the driver of the pickup sat on the ground while personnel responded, but when the response calmed slightly, he tried to run.
Law enforcement officers tackled him and took him into custody, the two witnesses said.
The Fremont County Coroner’s office also responded with a transport truck. One person, who lay in the middle of the road under a tarp and closer to the black vehicle, was placed into the transport truck. Firefighters held red tarps around the person to shield public view.
The Riverton Police Department announced in a Thursday statement that “both occupants of one of the vehicles had serious injuries;” one was pronounced dead one the scene, and the second was taken to SageWest Health Care, “where they succumbed to their injuries.”
The RPD statement doesn’t describe the two different vehicles, calling them “one of the vehicles” and “the other vehicle.” But the statement, coupled with witness interviews, indicates that two people were in the black vehicle, and have both now died.
And the driver of the pickup was arrested on suspicion of driving under the influence and vehicular homicide, plus other related offenses, the statement indicates when coupled with witness interviews.
A Dodge pickup involved in a double fatal car crash Wednesday evening lay on its side before wreckers righted it and winched it onto a trailer. The driver of the pickup tried to flee the scene, one witness said (Clair McFarland, Cowboy State Daily) 
A Dodge pickup involved in a double fatal car crash Wednesday evening lay on its side before wreckers righted it and winched it onto a trailer. The driver of the pickup tried to flee the scene, one witness said (Clair McFarland, Cowboy State Daily)
RPD concluded its statement with a request for anyone with information on the wreck to call 307-856-4891.
Clair McFarland can be reached at clair@cowboystatedaily.com.
