A least two people were killed in a head-on collision between a motorcycle and pickup south of Torrington on Friday.
The motorcycle was carrying two people when it collided with the pickup at about 5 p.m. on U.S. Highway 85 between Yoder and Torrington, according to a witness.
There were four victims in total, on the motorcycle — who died — and the others in the pickup.
Sherrie Peif was traveling on the highway that evening. She said she was “five or six vehicles” behind the crash and didn’t actually see it happen. But she also was one of several people who immediately pulled over and rushed to the scene and tried to help the victims.
“It was probably the worst thing I’ve ever witnessed in my entire life,” she told Cowboy State Daily on Monday.
‘In Pieces’
When Peif got to the scene, one of the passengers in the pickup was walking along the side of the road, holding his head and covered in blood. Several people attempted to calm him down and get medical treatment, but he was shouting, crying and “clearly in shock,” Peif said.
The other passenger in the pickup was lying on the ground. Two nurses who also pulled over to assist grabbed equipment from their vehicles to help the truck’s driver and passenger.
Peif heard later that both people were life-flighted to UCHealth in Greeley, Colorado. She did not know their status.
But there was no doubt both people on the motorcycle died, Peif said. Both were “in pieces.”
“A lot of people spent a lot of time trying to locate the bodies and portions of the bodies,” Peif said. The nurses“were taking blankets out of their vehicles to cover up what they could of the folks on the motorcycle.”
Goshen County Coroner Darin Yates told Cowboy State Daily that as of Monday, neither of the motorcycle riders have been identified and next-of-kin have not been notified. The Wyoming Highway Patrol hasn’t yet released a fatality report.
Erratic Driving And Excessive Speed
Peif could piece together the circumstances of the incident by talking with other eyewitnesses at the scene.
Several witnesses said the pickup was driving erratically “at extremely high rates of speed” and recklessly passed several vehicles, she said.
A “mortified” Colorado couple that witnessed the crash told Peif the pickup was in the opposite lane trying to pass another vehicle when it hit the motorcycle “head-on.”
“They said the pickup hit the motorcycle at such a high rate of speed that the pickup went airborne, hit the embankment and rolled several times before it stopped,” Peif said.
The motorcycle “completely disintegrated.”
Peif left the scene once Goshen County Sheriff’s Office deputies and ambulances arrived.
“It was so unbearable. I’m glad I didn’t see the accident take place. Just the aftermath was bad enough,” she said.
Since Friday, Peif said she’s been trying to get any information she can on the crash and the status of the people in the truck.
“It’s been a miserable weekend trying to figure out who went where, who was doing what, where the motorcyclists were from. Somewhere in America, someone got a phone call on Friday (from the Goshen County Sheriff’s Office) that was not a fun phone call to make,” she said.
There have been 88 fatalities on Wyoming’s highways so far in 2023, including the two who died at the scene of Friday’s crash.
The Wyoming Highway Patrol and Goshen County Sheriff’s Office declined to comment.
Andrew Rossi can be reached at: [email protected]
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