Travelers stopped to provide a hand as smoke rose from the ruins. Before the tour van caught fire, two onlookers rescued eight of the fourteen passengers from the debris.
Roger Merrill, a 60-year-old man who was driving on the highway, recorded the incident and told the Associated Press about the tragedy he saw.
He called the road going to the national park “a very dangerous highway because it leads to the main entrance of Yellowstone National Park” and told the outlet that he frequently saw tourist trucks traveling on it.
He was worried that the scene’s isolated location might prevent emergency personnel from arriving in time, so he responded, “It’s extremely busy.”
“Just because of the location, it took an unnervingly long time for help to arrive,” he claimed. Merrill captured the spectacle on camera as smoke billowed from the fire and flames whipped in the wind.
‘As many as they could’ were pulled from the wreck by two individuals after the collision. Before the van caught fire, the two were able to save eight people, including a toddler.
