The driver involved in a tragic accident that claimed seven lives near Yellowstone National Park had a blood alcohol level exceeding twice the legal threshold, according to officials.
Isaiah Moreno, a 25-year-old from Humble, Texas, was driving the Dodge Ram pickup that crashed into a tour van on Highway 20, causing the deaths of himself and six other travelers.
“This tragedy should serve as a wake-up call,” said Police Capt. Chris Weadick in a statement. “No one intends to cause an accident or end a life when they drive, but decisions have consequences.”
Idaho State Police revealed that Moreno had a blood alcohol content of .20 when he swerved across the center line of the highway and crashed into the Mercedes van at 7.15pm on May 1.
‘Impaired driving isn’t just illegal – it’s deadly. If you see someone unfit to drive, speak up. Lives depend on it,’ Weadick added.
Both vehicles caught on fire, and Moreno and six people from China, Italy and California were killed.
The remaining eight passengers of the van were taken to hospital with injuries after two passing travelers bravely helped pull them from the wreck before it burst into flames.
One traveler, 60-year-old Roger Merrill, filmed the scene and recalled to Associated Press the horror he witnessed.
Isaiah Moreno, 25, of Humble, Texas, was behind the wheel of the red Dodge Ram pickup that collided with a tour van on Highway 20, resulting in the deaths of himself and six other tourists
Moreno had a blood alcohol content of .20 when he swerved across the center line of the highway and crashed into the Mercedes van at 7.15pm on May 1
The remaining eight passengers of the van were taken to hospital with injuries after two passing travelers bravely helped pull them from the wreck before it burst into flames
He said he often saw tourist vans travel on the roadway toward Yellowstone National Park and described it as ‘a very dangerous highway because it leads to the main entrance.’
‘It’s extremely busy,’ Merrill said, and worried that emergency services would have a harder time accessing the remote location of the crash.
‘It took an unnervingly long time for help to arrive just because of the location,’ he added.
Video footage from Merrill showed the roaring flames engulfing the vehicles as smoke billowed into the sky.
Following the collision, two people were seen pulling ‘as many as they could’ from the wreck of the tour van and successfully rescued eight people, including a child.
Fremont County Coroner Brenda Dye told the New York Times that the group in the van had been visiting Yellowstone National Park.
The victims in the tour van were named as van driver Yu Zhang, 30, of Eastvale, California; Ivana Wen, 28, of Milan, Italy; Jianping Li, 71, of Guangxi, China; Xiaoming Jiang, 66, of Guilin, China; Li Nie, 64, of Arcadia, California; and Aifeng Wan, 53, also of Arcadia, California, Fox News reported.
