The 22-year-old driver of a runaway dump truck on Teton Pass that killed two people in a chain-reaction crash faces a pair of misdemeanor homicide by vehicle charges.
Laiton George McMinn of Idaho could have prevented the deadly July 7 crash but allegedly bypassed opportunities to stop his dump truck before its brakes failed coming down the pass on Highway 22, Wyoming Highway Patrol Trooper Brad Latchaw wrote in an affidavit filed in Teton County Circuit Court on Tuesday.
“This crash occurred because of driver error,” he wrote. “Based on the evidence and witness statements, Laiton came off the pass too fast. Laiton overused his brakes, which caused them to fade.”
Along with allegedly not reacting to signs his brakes were hot and failing, McMinn also bypassed steering into a runaway truck ramp just before the crash scene, the affidavit says.
“Laiton elected to not pull over and/or to take the runaway escape ramp,” it says. “This crash was totally preventable.”
Trooper Latchaw also concludes that the dump truck’s brakes faded that day because “of overuse, not a mechanical issue. … If Laiton had taken the escape ramp, this crash never would have occurred.”
For his part, McMinn declined to talk with law enforcement immediately after the crash, telling them only that his “brakes failed,” the affidavit says. He also asked if he was going to be arrested that day.
Chain-Reaction
With multiple vehicles, witnesses and two deaths to process, the investigation took more than two months before the charges were filed with the court Tuesday.
By the time Trooper Latchaw arrived at the scene that day, McMinn’s 1992 Kenworth dump truck registered to an Idaho construction company was on its side, and he was walking around outside the truck wearing a neon yellow construction shirt with blood on it.
The rest of the highway was littered with mechanical carnage from the chain-reaction crash.
Along with the fatal victims — identified as Nicholas Besobrasow, 66, of Tetonia, Idaho, and David Page, 57, of Mammoth Lakes, California — at least three others suffered serious injuries, the affidavit says.
“The scene was chaotic,” Latchaw wrote. “I witnessed a white dump truck at rest on its passenger side impeding the eastbound lane of travel. As I looked farther up the highway, I could see multiple other vehicles crashed and at rest.”
Latchaw approached McMinn and asked what happened.
“Laiton stated that he was coming down the pass and his brakes were ‘kind of working and they were iffy,’” the affidavit says. “He said that at one point he attempted to ditch the truck over the right-side guardrail, but his truck just bounced off it.”
Through investigation, a timeline of how the crash unfolded was put together, Latchaw wrote.
• McMinn’s eastbound runaway dump truck first sideswiped an eastbound motorcycle, causing serious injury to the driver.
• The truck then rear-ended an eastbound pickup.
• That pickup crossed the centerline of Highway 22 and collided head-on with a westbound pickup. The driver and a passenger in the eastbound truck sustained serious injury while the driver of the other pickup died on impact.
• The runaway dump truck then collided with a guardrail and rolled onto the driver’s side.
• The dump truck then slid on its side and collided with a westbound passenger vehicle, killing the driver.
• Still sliding on its side, the dump truck then sideswiped a westbound SUV. There were no injuries to the people in the SUV.
• The truck then eventually came to rest on its passenger side, having flipped at some point during the crash. McMinn sustained minor injuries.
What The Witnesses Said
During the WHP investigation, multiple witnesses were interviewed, Latchaw wrote.
“The majority of them stated that the dump truck appeared to be having issues shortly after it started downhill from the summit,” the affidavit says.
In a nutshell, they said the truck was going too fast, there was smoke coming from its brakes, they were surprised the driver didn’t pull over when the brakes started smoking, and that they “could not understand why the dump truck driver did not take the truck escape ramp,” the trooper wrote.
A Jackson airport taxi driver who witnessed the crash that day told Cowboy State Daily that, from his perspective, the driver was going “way too fast.”
The taxi driver had just dropped off passengers in Victor, Idaho, and was heading home over Teton Pass when traffic slowed behind the dump truck hauling asphalt.
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 the deadly crash unfold in front of him.
"I feel like I had an angel protecting me," Cebotari said. "One second changed everything."
‘Super Fast’
Just before 11:45 a.m. July 7, the Kenworth dump truck lost its brakes while descending WY 22 on the east side of Teton Pass near milepost 6.8, the Wyoming Highway Patrol reported.
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, adding that he 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.”
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.
When he rounded the next curve, the crash had already begun.
"I saw the motorcycle on the road,” he said. And ahead of that sat mangled pickups. He pulled over and jumped out.
"I went to the cars to see if there were any survivors,” he said.
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."
‘Multiple Poor Choices’
A post-crash inspection of the dump truck revealed “no mechanical issues being found that would have contributed negatively to the crash,” the affidavit says.
Trooper Latchaw also wrote that as a professional commercial truck driver, “Laiton should have never got himself in this situation in the first place.
“Laiton made multiple poor choices on the day of the crash, which resulted in the deaths of two people,” the affidavit continues.
The two homicide by vehicle charges are misdemeanors with maximum sentences of up to one year in jail and a fine of up to $2,000. That puts the maximum potential penalty, if convicted and given consecutive sentences, of up to two years and $4,000.
Greg Johnson can be reached at greg@cowboystatedaily.com.
