Wyoming crews worked through night to clear wreckage from I-80 tunnel after fiery crash

Collin Leonard, KSL.com

GREEN RIVER, Wyoming (KSL.com) — Traffic on Interstate 80 continues to be diverted around the Green River Tunnels after a fatal crash on Friday that killed two people, with an unknown number of injured.

The crash involved “multiple passenger and commercial vehicles in the middle and western parts of the westbound tunnel located at mile marker 90.2 on I-80,” according to a press release by the Wyoming Department of Transportation, sent Saturday.

On Friday, the Memorial Hospital of Sweetwater County asked the public to refrain from visiting the hospital except for an emergency due to the “mass-casualty incident” in the tunnels, but no information has been released on the number of injured.

RELATED | 2 killed in Wyoming tunnel crash

Wyoming Highway Patrol and local wrecker companies are still clearing damaged and abandoned vehicles out of the tunnel after fires blazed within.

“First responders bravely worked through the night to fight the fire in the tunnel, and we could not be more appreciative of their teamwork and support,” Wyoming Highway Patrol Lt. Col. Karl Germain said in the release.

Electrical equipment and lighting fell from the ceiling during the fire, and a thick layer of soot will need to be cleaned off the tunnel. Engineers from the Wyoming Department of Transportation “are confident in the structural integrity of the eastbound tunnel and its ability to carry traffic again once the westbound crash scene is cleared,” the release says.

Westbound traffic continues to be rerouted at mile marker 91 and eastbound at mile marker 89 through the city of Green River, which is causing delays.

Crews worked all night attempting to clear wreckage from one of the Green River Tunnels, the site of a fiery crash on Friday. | Wyoming Department of Transportation