Six people have died on Montana’s roads in the span of a week.
Most of the fatal wrecks occurred on highways in the southeastern part of the state, according to statements from Montana Highway Patrol. Despite the recent uptick in fatalities, overall fatalities in Montana are down in 2024 compared to last year.
A Montana Department of Transportation camera shows conditions for U.S. Highway 212 near Lame Deer on July 30, 2024.
On July 26, one person was killed and seven hospitalized after two vehicles collided on the Northern Cheyenne Indian Reservation. Three people were traveling east in a sedan on U.S. Highway 212, between Muddy and Lame Deer. At around mile marker 38, per MHP, the driver tried passing semi-truck in a no passing zone. The sedan went right into the path of a westbound SUV.
The two vehicles struck head-on. The impact killed the driver of the sedan, a 21-year-old man from Busby. His two passengers, a 20-year-old man and two-year-old girl, were hospitalized. Neither of the men were wearing seat belts at the time of the wreck, according to MHP. The crash flipped the SUV onto its roof, and emergency crews took all five of its passengers to a Lame Deer hospital for emergency care. Those traveling in the SUV included three men and two women, most of whom were from South Dakota.
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Less than an hour after the crash outside of Lame Deer, a Glasgow man died in a single vehicle crash near Roundup. The 84-year-old was driving south on U.S. Highway 87, the main artery connecting Roundup and Billings, when one of the rear tires of his minivan blew out. The driver overcorrected and the van went off the road, overturning before coming to a stop. First responders pronounced the man dead at the scene.
On July 27, a Rosebud County resident died in a rollover crash near Forsyth. A 52-year-old woman was at the wheel of a Ford Mustang going east of Old U.S. Highway 10, which runs parallel to Interstate 94 east of Forsyth. Near the intersection of Schiffer Road, the driver overcorrected after starting to drift off the right side of the road. The car skidded off the road and rolled into a coulee. The woman, who according to MHP was not wearing a seat belt, died at the scene.
That same day, a Helena man died when his motorcycle collided with a trailer in Lewis and Clark County. The motorcyclist was apparently riding at speeds in excess of 100 mph. On Monday, an Idaho man was killed in a crash near Little Bitterroot Lake in Flathead County. The 61-year-old from Idaho Falls was riding an ATV away from a boat launch when he was hit by an SUV traveling on U.S. Highway 2. The man on the ATV allegedly tried crossing the highway without yielding to traffic, per MHP.
Early Tuesday morning, a Washington man died in a wreck on the border of the Blackfeet Indian Reservation, just north of Saint Mary Lake. Speeding and intoxication are suspected to be factors in the crash.
As of late July, at least 100 people have died in fatal wrecks throughout the state this year, a slight decline compared to the 105 deaths recorded at the end of July 2023. Intoxication is suspected to have been a factor in roughly half of the fatal crashes this year.