A Jackson airport taxi owner had just dropped off passengers in Victor, Idaho, and was heading home over Teton Pass when traffic slowed behind a dump truck hauling asphalt Tuesday.
Motorcycles slipped around it. A camper pulled to the shoulder near the 8,431-foot summit to let vehicles by. A few pickups followed.
Dumitru Cebotari was next. Instead, he hesitated.
Moments later, he watched a deadly highway crash unfold just seconds in front of him.
"I feel like I had an angel protecting me," Cebotari told Cowboy State Daily. "One second changed everything."
Just before 11:45 a.m. Tuesday, the Kenworth dump truck lost its brakes while descending WY 22 on the east side of Teton Pass near milepost 6.8, wrote the Wyoming Highway Patrol.
The truck struck six vehicles before flipping onto its side.
Two people — 66-year-old Nicholas Besobrasow of Tetonia, Idaho, and 57-year-old David Page of Mammoth Lakes, California — were killed. Four others were injured.
Besobrasow founded Alupka Asset Management in Driggs, Idaho. Page was executive director of the Winter Wildlands Alliance based in Boise, Idaho.
For Cebotari, the horror began before the first impact.
Something Was Wrong
Cebotari said traffic was climbing the steep grade slowly.
"We almost reached the top," he said. "The motorcycles passed him because we were going so slow."
A camper then pulled over near the summit.
"I thought the dump truck was going to do the same," he said.
Instead, it accelerated on the sustained 10% descent.
"I was about to pass him too, but he started rushing down the hill super fast,” Cebotari said.
Cebotari immediately sensed something wasn't right.
"I saw smoke coming out of his tires, and they started smoking worse and worse and worse,” he said.
"They started smelling so bad," he said.
Oncoming motorists appeared to notice it too.
"Everybody who was driving from downhill passing him were looking at him because they realized he was driving way too fast,” Cebotari said.
Cebotari stayed back, leaving roughly five or six seconds between his SUV and the truck, he said.
Around The Corner
When he rounded the next curve, the crash had already begun.
"I saw the motorcycle on the road."
Ahead of it sat mangled pickup trucks.
He pulled over and jumped out.
"I went to the cars to see if there were any survivors,” he said.
One pickup had begun smoking.
Another man stopped with him, and together they called 911 while checking the damaged vehicles.
"I only saw a lady moving," Cebotari said.
Gasoline covered parts of the roadway, he said.
"There were people crashed and smashed inside," Cebotari said quietly. "I couldn't stay there anymore."
Crash Summary
In a preliminary crash summary, the Wyoming Highway Patrol said the dump truck first rear-ended a Triumph motorcycle, causing the rider to lose control and slide across the highway.
The truck then slammed into a Chevrolet Silverado, pushing it head-on into a Ford F-150.
The Ford overturned, left the road and struck an electronic message sign.
The dump truck continued downhill, struck a guardrail, rolled onto its driver's side and slid across both lanes.
A Chevrolet Equinox swerved almost entirely off the roadway but was sideswiped by the truck as it slid past.
The truck then struck a Subaru Outback, pushing it into a drainage ditch before going airborne over the Subaru and finally coming to rest on its passenger side.
The Highway Patrol said preliminary evidence indicates the truck suffered a brake failure while descending the steep mountain pass.
The truck was owned by Avail Valley Construction-ID, LLC, of Victor, Idaho.
Investigators continue examining the vehicle and other evidence to determine the cause of the crash and whether citations or criminal charges are warranted.
'Happy To Be Alive'
After leaving the scene, Cebotari called his wife.
"I told her what happened," he said. "'I'm happy to be alive.'"
He couldn't bring himself to drive for the rest of the day.
Now, he keeps thinking about how close he came to being directly in front of the dump truck instead of behind it.
"I was supposed to be right in front of the truck," he said.
His wife encouraged him to share what he witnessed.
"I was there," he said. "People deserve to know what happened."
Motorcyclist struck first
The motorcyclist struck first also survived.
Caleb Rodriguez, who said he had ridden from Austin, Texas, to Jackson, wrote on a social media post that he was less than 10 minutes from finishing the trip when the dump truck hit him from behind.
"I was the first one the dump truck hit on the way down," Rodriguez wrote.
He said he suffered a dislocated shoulder and a broken foot but credited his riding gear with saving his life.
"I don't know how he didn't run me over," Rodriguez wrote. "I'm just lucky to be alive."
For Cebotari, the images from Tuesday continue to replay in his mind.
He thinks about the families who lost loved ones and about the split-second decision he made not to pass.
"I definitely feel their pain," he said. "I'm really sorry for what happened. I wish it didn't happen that way."
Kolby Fedore can be reached at kolby@cowboystatedaily.com.
