By Jack Reaney STAFF WRITER
This story was updated on 5/18 with the name of the deceased.
A fatal collision occurred on U.S. Highway 191 in Gallatin Gateway on Tuesday evening.
The Gallatin County Sheriff’s Department received a call at 6:23 p.m. regarding a multi-vehicle accident with a passenger ejection near mile marker 71. Due to significant force of collision and ejection, one passenger died at the scene of the crash, according to Sgt. Dan Haydon, with the Gallatin County Sheriff’s Office.
The deceased was identified as 29-year-old Bozeman resident Deivin Roney Soto Baires. The investigation of the crash is ongoing by the sheriff’s office, Montana Highway Patrol and Montana Motor Carrier Services.
According to Montana Highway Patrol Trooper Jacob Patton, three vehicles were involved.
Vehicle one was a small passenger car with five total occupants driving northbound. The driver lost control in the rain, and the vehicle began to hydroplane and spin, eventually contacting a second vehicle, a mid-size SUV, before making rear-to-front impact with a third vehicle, a large dump truck.
Occupants of the SUV and dump truck were uninjured, but four passengers from the smaller vehicle were transported to the hospital with minor injuries, and released Tuesday night, Patton said.
The fifth passenger, Soto Baires, was not wearing a seatbelt, he said.
The section of highway, near the mouth of the Gallatin Canyon to Big Sky, was closed for three and a half hours. Montana Department of Transportation set up a detour down Mill Street and south through Gallatin Gateway on secondary roads.
Mile marker 71 is located near a stretch of two-lane traffic in the northbound direction. It is unclear whether that passing zone played a role in the multi-vehicle crash, as the event remains under investigation.
