(Reuters) – A passenger van carrying more than a dozen tourists collided with a pickup truck in a fiery highway crash near Yellowstone National Park, killing seven people, Idaho state police reported on Friday.
The cause of the wreck, which occurred about an hour and 15 minutes before sunset on Thursday evening, remains under investigation, according to a state police news release.
The Mercedes passenger van was transporting a tour group with a total of 14 occupants in the vehicle near Henry’s Lake when it collided with a Dodge Ram pickup with only the driver aboard and burst into flames, police said.
Six people from the van and the pickup truck driver were killed, according to police. Information about the victims was being kept confidential pending notification of next of kin.
The accident occurred on U.S. Highway 20 near Henry’s Lake in eastern Idaho, about 20 miles west of Yellowstone National Park.
State police said Highway 20 was closed in both directions for nearly seven hours while emergency and transportation crews worked to manage the scene and clear the roadway.
(Reporting by Steve Gorman in Los Angeles; Editing by Daniel Wallis)
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