This story was updated at 4:45 p.m. Wednesday.
A multi-vehicle accident between Cody and Yellowstone National Park involving multiple motorcycles on Wednesday morning resulted in one confirmed fatality and five serious injuries, the Wyoming Highway Patrol tells Cowboy State Daily.
WHP spokesman Aaron Brown said the multi-vehicle incident at Wapiti involved four motorcycles, a pickup truck, and a Wyoming Department of Transportation vehicle.
“What we know is we had one fatality,” Brown said. “One (victim) was LifeFlighted to a hospital in Billings, Montana, and the other three were taken to Cody Regional Health via ambulance. I don't know who was taken or transferred where, but they all had severe injuries."
Because the investigation into the accident is ongoing, Brown didn’t know what the contributing factors might have been. He could confirm that the driver of the WYDOT truck was not injured.
“The WYDOT vehicle looks to have been struck toward the end of the crash,” he said
WHIP will release the deceased victim’s name once next-of-kin is notified, Brown said.
As of 2:50 p.m., U.S. Highway 14/16/20 was cleared of debris and open to traffic in both directions.
At 9:38 a.m., WYDOT closed all lanes on the highway due to the crash. First responders were rushing to the scene, which an eyewitness says involved multiple people who appeared to be seriously injured.
According to exchanges on the Park County Public Safety-WyoLink radio scanner, first responders had received “a report of two fatalities.”
Too Grisly
Wapiti resident Jimmy Rush was heading toward Cody for work when he observed the scene of the incident. It happened sometime between 8 and 8:30 a.m. Wednesday near the Old Faithful RV Park, just outside Wapiti.
“When I passed by, it was still a very early stage of the accident,” he said. “There were no first responders on the scene. There were at least four to five motorcycles and debris everywhere. I counted at least three bodies that I could see lying on the ground, not moving, with more down in ditches."
Rush said the victims were being attended to “by all of the gracious people of Wyoming,” who immediately pulled over and jumped out of vehicles to help.
A Silver Ford pickup truck, either an F-250 or F-350, had been “ejected out into a field,” according to Rush. From what he could see, it appeared to have "impacted something.”
“I immediately called (Park County Dispatch) and said, ‘You guys got to send everybody. There’s multiple bodies and multiple injuries, and one ambulance ain't going to get it done.’”
As Rush continued into Cody, he saw five Park County Sheriff’s deputies, multiple fire trucks, a Wyoming Highway Patrol trooper, and two ambulances heading to the scene.
Rush took a photo of a WYDOT truck at the scene, which showed a damaged tailgate.
“It was the only picture I felt comfortable taking,” he said. “It was too grisly.”
What Happened?
Rush could only piece together a rough scenario of events based on what he observed.
“From what I can tell, the WYDOT truck was starting to do some type of work,” he said. “There were cones set up, but I don't know if he was setting those cones up for some pending work that was about to happen, or if he had set those cones up because of the accident.
“It’s really hard to tell, but it was severe.”
This is a developing story and will be updated as more information is available.
Andrew Rossi can be reached at arossi@cowboystatedaily.com.
