Video shows fireball after tour van and truck collide near Yellowstone, killing 7
Seven people died after a pickup truck and a tour van crashed in a fiery scene near Yellowstone National Park on May 1, Idaho State police said.
A video of the aftermath shows the wreckage of a severely damaged red truck alongside the engulfed van and a plume of smoke billowing up.
At 7:15 p.m. local time, a Dodge Ram pickup truck collided with a Mercedes passenger van near Henry's Lake, which is about 20 miles east of Yellowstone, police said in a news release. The van was transporting a tour group and caught fire after the crash. First responders including an air ambulance treated more than a dozen patients.
Shortly after the crash, bystanders and a Fremont County sheriff's deputy helped injured people in the van as it went up in flames, Idaho State Police said.
There were 14 people on board the van and one in the pickup. Six people in the van and the driver of the pickup died as a result of the crash. The driver of the truck was identified on May 2 as 25-year-old Isaih Moreno of Humble, Texas, Idaho State Police said.
Officials told the East Idaho News and the New York Times all six people who died in the van were from outside the United States. Idaho State Police spokesperson Aaron Snell told Paste BN he is awaiting confirmation on further information about the victims.
"Due to the magnitude of the incident and the ongoing process of notifying the next of kin, no names, ages, hometowns, or nationalities have been released," the news release said.
The highway where the crash happened was closed for nearly seven hours while emergency responders were on scene, police said. The road reopened May 2. The cause of the collision is under investigation.
(This story has been updated to add new information and to change or add a photo or video.)