Yellowstone wreck driver was at twice the legal alcohol limit, police say

A driver who crashed a pickup into a tour van near Yellowstone National Park earlier this month, causing the death of seven people, had a blood alcohol level more than twice the legal limit for driving, police said Friday. 

Isaiah Moreno, 25, of Humble, Texas, was operating a Dodge Ram pickup truck on U.S. Highway 20 in eastern Idaho when his vehicle crossed the center line and collided head-on with a Mercedes tour van carrying more than a dozen people.

Both vehicles burst into flames, and Moreno, along with six people from China, Italy and California, were killed. Survivors were taken to nearby hospitals with injuries. 

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The deadly crash happened near Henrys Lake, about 16 miles west of Yellowstone in Wyoming. Yellowstone is one of the country’s largest national parks and draws millions of visitors each year.

Moreno had a blood alcohol level of .20%, Idaho State Police said in a statement. The limit is .08%.

“This tragedy should be a wake-up call,” police Capt. Chris Weadick said. “No one plans to cause a crash or take a life when they get behind the wheel, but choices have consequences.”

Video from the May 1 crash shows a red truck on the wrong side of the road, its front crushed and on fire, while the tour van is engulfed in flames. Survivors were being tended to on the side of the road while a helicopter arrived.

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Roger Merrill, 60, told The Associated Press he was driving home when he came upon the collision, and he said there was an anxious wait for first responders.

“It took an unnervingly long time for help to arrive just because of the location,” he said.

ISP troopers responded to the collision at milepost 399. The highway where the crash happened is on a route between Yellowstone and the Grand Tetons that is open in the spring before a north-south route is plowed and the park fully opens for summer.

The victims in the tour van were named by Local News 8 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.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.