Green River, Wyo. (AP) – Researchers in Wyoming started sitting in a highway tunnel after smoke on Saturday, dangerous chemicals and structural worries prevented them from determining how many people died in the fiery stack.
At least two people were killed and five others were seriously injured in the crash of Friday MultiveHicle, officials said. The crash took place in the western tunnel of Interstate 80 under Castle Rock, a snowstone -covered sandstone formation that looms over the city of Green River in the southwest of the state.
“It is really a long process only because of the size of the incident and then being able to document everything we need to ensure that our research is thorough,” said Major James Thomas of the Wyoming Highway Patrol.
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As soon as civil servants are able to pull out vehicles, they will work with the coroner, he said. Authorities still have to be able to count all the vehicles involved.
Photos of the scene Friday showed crumpled semitrailers outside the smoke -black mouth of the tunnel, which is about a quarter of miles long (400 meters).
Randy Ringstmeyer, a Wyoming Department of Transportation Engineer, said there was extensive fire damage in the middle third of the western tunnel. The fire damaged its concrete lining, which means that loose concrete falls and First Responders obliges to avoid those areas.
Interstate traffic was diverted by Green River. Officials wanted to reopen the eastern tunnel in three days, so that this two -way traffic can organize while the western part remains closed. Engineers could not estimate if the western tunnel would reopen.
The National Transportation Safety Board said it has opened a safety investigation together with the Highway Patrol.
