By News Channel NebraskaCHEYENNE - The Wyoming Highway Patrol is investigating a fatality accident involving a Scottsbluff High School senior last weekend.
Wyatt Butler, 18, of Minatare, died in a crash near the intersection of Highway 85 and Road 144 in rural Laramie County around 11:30 a.m. Saturday. The patrol said Butler was driving a 1998 Dodge Dakota northbound when he came upon a parked Ford F-150 and a semi-tractor-trailer that had stopped due to a partial blockage in the road.
Butler began to pass the stopped vehicles on the left and was forced to swerve back into the right lane to avoid hitting an oncoming vehicle. His vehicle sideswiped the driver's side of the F-150, spinning his vehicle into the attached trailer on the semi-tractor, before coming to rest on the east side of the highway.
The three occupants of the other two vehicles were not injured during in the crash.
According to the patrol, Butler was not wearing a seat belt at the time of the crash and speed, driver inattention and cell phone use are expected to be a factor in the accident.
It was the second fatal accident at the intersection in two months.