Wyoming I-80 tunnel crash results in at least 2 deaths, involves several vehicles, smoke pours from tunnel

Troopers with the Wyoming Highway Patrol are investigating a crash with at least two deaths in which several vehicles collided inside an Interstate 80 tunnel near Green River.

The crash occurred at 11:37 a.m. on Friday in the tunnel bore for the westbound lanes, but both directions of traffic were shut down by the Wyoming Department of Transportation. All lanes of I-80 travel were still closed in the early evening between Rock Springs and Green River. Traffic was being rerouted through Green River.

The Sweetwater County Sheriff's Office said there remained an "explosion threat" at the scene of the crash, according to a report from Cowboy State Daily. 

"I don't know the cause of the accident, but it involved several semis and a couple of passenger vehicles," John Eddins, district engineer for Wyoming Department of Transportation District 3, told Cowboy State Daily.

Memorial Hospital of Sweetwater County declared the crash a mass casualty incident and asked all but emergency care patients to avoid the hospital.

Green River Fire Chief Bill Robinson told Cowboy State Daily that the tunnel would be closed indefinitely and that "it's going to be days before we can work through all this stuff that's going on."

Geologists and bridge engineers from the Wyoming Department of Transportation were headed to the scene to determine whether the tunnel is still safe for traffic to pass through.

At a press conference Saturday, Major James Thomas of the Wyoming Highway Patrol said the efforts to put out the fire inside the tunnel went "well into the evening" Friday. Conditions inside the tunnel Saturday were not safe for investigators to enter the westbound tunnel, he added, citing concerns for airborne contaminants and the structural integrity of the tunnel itself. 

Once those concerns were mitigated, Thomas said, investigators planned to map the crash scene from west to east. Crews then would start pulling vehicles out of the tunnel. 

It would be "a long process," Thomas said, considering the hazardous materials that still be among the semis' fuel tanks and cargo. 

Randy Ringstmeyer, a Wyoming Department of Transportation engineer, said the concrete liner of the tunnel appeared to be extensively damaged and would need intense examination. But, at first glance, the mountain's rock behind it looked undamaged and stable.  

"Smoke started coming out of the tunnel"

Alyssa Vasey was a passenger in car being driven by her father when they approached the tunnels going westbound from Green River to Kremmerer.

"Everybody just started stopping," she said. "We were unsure what was happening; sometimes you get deer in the road."

Their car wound up stopped 200 feet back from the entrance.

"As we sat there, smoke started coming out of the tunnel," she said.

Soon, sheriff's deputies and EMTs began running inside the tunnel. They were carrying bags and equipment that included AEDs, according to Vasey.

"Then things started exploding," she said.

Vasey said the explosions shook the car in "tremors."

After about 90 minutes emergency crews turned her car around.

Vasey said they had stopped for lunch prior to the incident.

"I think if we were a minute or two ahead of where we were, we would've been in (the tunnel)," she said.