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Six motorcycles being ridden by German tourists were heading west toward Yellowstone National Park when an eastbound pickup truck with Oregon license plates crossed the center line. The truck sideswiped the first two motorcycles involved, injuring …
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An updated version of this story is available here. Three motorcyclists died and three more were seriously injured when a pickup truck went over the line on U.S. Highway 14-16-20, according to Wyoming Highway Patrol Trooper Blain Mollett. The crash occurred approximately 23 miles west of Cody and just east of the Shoshone National Forest boundary at 12:20 p.m. Thursday.
Six motorcycles being ridden by German tourists were heading west toward Yellowstone National Park when an eastbound pickup truck with Oregon license plates crossed the center line. The truck sideswiped the first two motorcycles involved, injuring those riders, Mollett said. The truck then went head-on with the last three motorcycles.
“The sixth one (motorcycle) was the lead motorcyclist and not in the crash at all; he just skated by,” Mollett said. “Two of those three bikes were the three fatalities.”
The three seriously injured motorcyclists were ultimately taken by helicopter to a hospital in Billings; a fourth motorcyclist and the driver of the truck were treated at West Park Hospital and later released.
The identities of the deceased will not be made available until their next of kin are contacted, Mollett said. The injured people also were not identified.
“The problem is when you have motorcyclists, they ride in a tight group and when you are coming at someone across the line, you have multiple motorcycles involved with nothing to protect them,” he said.
The identity of the truck driver was not available to the public yet either and Mollett said he wasn’t sure if the driver was actually from Oregon or was a Wyoming resident.
The westbound lane was blocked following the wreck, with traffic diverted around the crash scene until late Thursday afternoon. Traffic was flowing like normal by 5 p.m., Mollett said.
The crash on U.S. Highway 14-16-20 remained under investigation on Thursday evening and the Highway Patrol said it would release more information as it becomes available.
Editor's note: This version corrects and expands upon how many people were injured and where they were treated.
