Wolf Creek, MT : Three dead, five injured in morning head-on collision on Highway 287 on Wednesday, July 15th 2015

Three people are dead and five injured after a head-on collision on U.S. Highway 287 just a few miles south of Bowman’s Corner between Wolf Creek and Augusta.Montana Highway Patrol closed Highway 287 from Interstate 15 to Bowman’s Corner – the intersection with Highway 200 – around 10 a.m. and the route was closed until about 5:30 p.m.The wreck occurred on a long empty stretch of highway at the top of the rolling hills just north of the Dearborn River.Though details were unclear, Taiya Ryan of Arizona witnessed the wreck. She and a companion were driving northbound behind a silver pickup hauling a trailer full of large round hay bales. As they started to crest a hill, they encountered a white pickup truck with a canopy and Arizona license plates heading south in the northbound lane. The truck pulling the trailer of hay bales tried to swerve but didn’t have enough time to avoid the collision, Ryan said.The crash scene was chaotic even more than an hour after the accident. The west side of the highway was strewn with debris from the silver pickup. The east side of the highway was cluttered with debris from the white pickup including clothes, luggage, CDs and camping gear. The three people who died at the scene were all in the white pickup truck. They were later identified as two females and one male by Lewis and Clark County Coroner Mickey Nelson. However, the names of the deceased were not available at press time.After investigators had a chance to go through the scene it was determined that two of the injured victims were in the silver pickup and six people were riding in the white truck, which was identified as a 2001 Ford, said Montana Highway Patrol Sgt. Jay Nelson.The cause of the accident and any contributing factors are unknown at this time, as are the identities of any of the victims.Nelson did say that both drivers were interviewed in the hospital in Great Falls Wednesday afternoon and blood samples were taken. When a wreck involves a fatality, taking blood samples from the driver or drivers is a standard procedure, he explained. Speed doesn't appear to be a factor, Nelson said, though the investigation is ongoing.Immediately after the accident, some of the first people on the scene were members of a Lewis and Clark County road crew who were headed to Augusta to do some bridge work. The crew was transporting an excavator and helped emergency crews get victims out of the white pickup.Responders to the scene came from both north and south of the site and included Augusta Ambulance, I-15 quick response unit, Wolf Creek quick response unit, Lewis and Clark County Sheriff’s Office, Montana Department of Transportation and the Lewis and Clark County coroner.According to members of the road crew, the Jaws of Life was unable to get through the portions of the white pickup to enable extrication of the victims, so crews used a sawzall and the excavator to access the truck through the top. However, once the injured victims were transported from the scene, the excavator operator had to maintain the excavator’s grip on the pickup truck to hold it in place until the coroner arrived. The three fatality victims remained in the truck.Two of the injured were transported by helicopter – Mercy Flight out of Great Falls and Summit Air Ambulance out of Helena. The remaining three injured victims were transported via ambulance to Benefis Hospital in Great Falls. Their conditions are unknown at this time.Since this is a major accident, investigators are going to make sure all details are analyzed before issuing a final determination as to what happened, Sgt. Nelson said.
Investigators are pursuing warrants to search both vehicles and retrieve "black boxes," which will have crucial data on speed at the time of the accident, he said. "We want to make sure we look at all the details," Nelson said.IR reporters Tom Kuglin and Al Knauber contributed to this story.

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Update: Three dead, five injured in morning head-on collision on Highway 287