Parked School Bus Involved in Traffic Fatality Near Gillette
According to the Gillette Police Department, 25-year-old Wyoming resident Jesse Mcmanis was killed in a traffic accident that involved multiple vehicles on Swanson Road near Gillette on Oct. 19.
According to the narrative provided by the police, at some point a BMW driven by Mcmanis left on the east side of Swanson Road around 11:00 p.m., however no tire tracks were visible that would show where the vehicle travelled.
But based on mud that was sprayed on an adjacent vehicle, the BMW may have run through a large mud puddle to the south of Swanson Road, and because of multiple tracks in the area, it was not possible for police to determine the route of the BMW through the mud puddle.
Based on the narrative, it appears that the BMW slid broadside into the front end of a parked school bus due to the damage to the BMW driver's side and damage to the school bus.
The school bus was then pushed into the front end of another parked vehicle, with the BMW driver's side taking most of the impact with the side curtain airbag being deployed.
There was no steam or smoke coming from the vehicle's engine compartment that would indicate the crash may have occurred earlier than it was reported.
A witness saw a passenger exiting the vehicle, but not the crash itself, with police not identifying either of them.
A search of the area for the missing passenger was conducted and he was not located.
While Mcmanis was wearing a seatbelt at the time of the crash, the report by police does mention the roads were wet and it was raining and blowing snow at the time of the crash, but it does not say that there was inclement weather.
This is the 93rd fatality, and 86th crash, to date compared to 114 fatalities at this point in 2020, 131 in 2019, 96 in 2018, and 114 in 2017.