A late-night crash on Teton Pass ended with a truck-trailer combo punching through a guardrail, injuring the driver and igniting a small hillside fire.
WYDOT issued an alert around 12:30 a.m. Tuesday for a wreck at milepost 7. Battalion Chief Chris Stiehl of Jackson Hole Fire/EMS said the truck, towing a trailer loaded with three vehicles, “lost its brakes near the top of the pass just before midnight.” The weight of the load carried it along the rail for about 100 feet before it clipped a rock and veered off the road just above the catch-net truck arrestor, according to Wyoming Highway Patrol Officer Arron Healy.
The rig landed on the slope below and caught fire, scorching roughly 0.1 acres of ground cover. Crews knocked the flames down quickly; US Forest Service investigators checked the scene as it cooled, and Stiehl said there were “no more concerns” about fire spread.
The driver either crawled from the wreck or was ejected—still unclear—and Teton County Search and Rescue hauled him up the steep hillside using a wheeled litter from Old Pass Road to a waiting ambulance. His condition wasn’t immediately available.
Multiple agencies responded, including law enforcement, Jackson Hole Fire/EMS, TCSAR and the US Forest Service—“a full-team effort,” Stiehl said.
Recovery continued into Tuesday morning. Because one of the towed vehicles was an electric Rivian, crews took extra precautions given the fire risks associated with damaged EVs. The cause of the crash remains under investigation.
The original story by for Buckrail.
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