A Powell High School student died after a one-vehicle rollover accident west of Powell early on Jan. 1.

Daile Lynn Pascoe, 17, was killed in the crash, which took place around 1:45 a.m. near 1396 Road 19, past the Heart Mountain Relocation Center. There were three other people in the vehicle but no one else was injured.

According to the Park County Sheriff’s Office, the investigation revealed that the driver, a 17-year-old male, was operating a 2006 Dodge pickup northbound on Road 19 at a stated speed of 50 miles per hour.

As he approached the crest of a hill, the driver hit a patch of ice and the truck began to slide sideways, according to a release from the sheriff’s office. The driver over-corrected and continued to slide sideways onto a dry portion of the road.

The vehicle then slid off of the east side of Road 19 where it struck a ditch and rolled one and one half times, coming to rest on its roof in a field.  

Pascoe, who was seated in the front passenger seat, was pinned in the vehicle by the collapsed roof and had to be extricated by members of the Powell Fire Department. She was pronounced dead at the scene by emergency responders from Powell Valley Ambulance. Pascoe was not wearing a seat belt.

The other two passengers, a 17-year-old juvenile male seated in the rear passenger side seat, and a 17-year-old juvenile female seated in the rear center seat, were uninjured, as was the driver. The driver and female passenger were wearing their seat belts. The male passenger was not.

The crash remains under investigation, according to the PCSO, but alcohol use is not suspected.

The fatal accident comes on the heels of a report that there was an unwelcome resurgence in the number of deadly crashes in Wyoming in 2014. According to numbers compiled by the Wyoming Highway Patrol, 148 people were killed in traffic crashes in the state, compared to 87 people in 2013.

The number of fatal crashes in the state last year is a return to the totals in previous years, according to the patrol.