6 Dead In Blizzard Crash In Wyoming

A 150-mile section of Interstate 80 reopened Monday after being closed overnight because of blizzard conditions and a multi-vehicle pileup that killed six people, the Highway Patrol said.

The highway had been closed since Sunday afternoon when 22 cars and trucks crashed some 90 miles west of Cheyenne.

The crash, which involved semi-trailers and passenger vehicles, was reported west of Laramie shortly after 2:30 or 3 p.m., Wyoming Highway Patrol dispatcher Michelle Hess told CBS Radio News, and the road was closed at that point. Few other details were released. Several smaller crashes also occurred behind the 20-vehicle crash, troopers said.

Troopers at the scene reported zero visibility in blowing snow.

The weather also was blamed for a crash Sunday south of Lander that killed an infant and injured three people, said Highway Patrol Sgt. Stephen Townsend.

In addition to the six dead in the accident on I-80, roughly a dozen people were taken to hospitals in Laramie and Rawlins, Townsend said.

Seven of the injured were listed in stable condition at Carbon County Memorial Hospital in Rawlins. Ivinson Memorial Hospital in Laramie treated and released four or five people and transferred two others with head injuries to Poudre Valley Hospital in Fort Collins, Colo., where one was in critical condition Monday, hospital officials said.