UPDATE - 4:30PM - The Wyoming Highway Patrol confirms a multi vehicle crash on June  9 at 12:15 pm west of Cody on US 14-16-20, approximately 27 miles east of the entrance to Yellowstone National Park, has claimed the lives of three German citizens.  The crash involved a pick-up and five (5) motorcycles.

Initial investigations indicate the driver of the pick-up, Manuel Defuentes of Ontario, Oregon, failed to negotiate a right hand curve in the roadway and crossed the center line of the roadway colliding with a group of motorcycle riders.  The collision involved five of the six motorcycles traveling in a group.  Three of the motorcycle riders were killed and four were injured.  Three of the injured were subsequently air lifted to Billings, MT.  The fourth rider was treated and released from West Park Hospital.  The crash is still under investigation and names will be released as soon as identities have been confirmed and next of kin have been notified.

The WHP reminds all drivers that summer weather brings many motorcyclists to Wyoming.  Please be attentive while on the highway!

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UPDATE - A 61-year-old man has been arrested following a wreck that killed three motorcyclists from Germany who were heading to Yellowstone National Park in northern Wyoming.

The Wyoming Highway Patrol arrested Manuel Moreno Defuentes, of Ontario, Oregon.

Defuentes was scheduled to make his first court appearance Friday in Cody. Defuentes doesn't have an attorney yet and is being held at the Park County Detention Center.

The wreck occurred Thursday afternoon when a pickup truck crossed the center line of U.S. Highway 14-16-20 west of Cody and crashed into a group of motorcyclists about 25 miles from Yellowstone. Two men and one woman were killed. Three others were injured and are in stable condition at a hospital in Billings, Montana.

Victim names have not been released.

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CODY, Wyo. (AP) - Authorities say three motorcyclists were killed and two others were seriously injured when a pickup crashed into the group of riders west of Cody.

Wyoming Highway Patrol Trooper Blain Mollett says the truck crossed the center line of U.S. Highway 14-16-20 and crashed into the motorcyclists just east of the Shoshone National Forest boundary Thursday afternoon. The truck sideswiped two motorcycles, injuring those riders. It then crashed head-on into three more motorcycles.

A motorcyclist who was at the front of the group was not hit.

two people who were injured were flown by helicopter to a hospital in Billings, Montana.

Investigators have not released the names of anyone involved.

 

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