Name released in fatal Evaro wreck
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EVARO — Missoula County Public Information Officer Jason Johnson released the name of a 21-year-old Plains woman killed in a three-vehicle crash Jan. 6.
Joscelyn Lea Cook was on her way back to school after winter break when the crash occurred.
Johnson said the cause of death was blunt force trauma to the head and body.
According to the Montana Highway Patrol, the wreck happened around 3:25 p.m. when a Toyota Tundra pickup traveling north on U.S. Highway 93 drifted across the center line and side-swiped a southbound Dodge Ram on Evaro Hill. The Tundra then smashed into the southbound guard rail, rotated 180 degrees and hit a Ford Ranger.
The Tundra was traveling backward at highway speed when it collided with the Ranger’s passenger side. Cook, who was sitting in the passenger seat, was pronounced dead at the scene.
Montana Highway Patrol Trooper Philip Smart said the Tundra’s bed had been removed and a work truck-like steel flatbed had been welded onto the frame. All parties were wearing seatbelts.
Smart said he does not believe drugs or alcohol were involved.
“The roads were damp but not slippery or icy, so it was not a road conditions crash,” Smart said. “At this point it looks like it was inattentive driving and he just drifted into the oncoming lanes.”
Six people were involved in the three-vehicle accident. The driver of the Toyota Tundra, a 21-year-old male, was transported to St. Patrick’s hospital in Missoula, where he was treated and released.
As of press time, the Missoula County Attorney’s Office had not received documentation on the wreck, but could not rule out the possibility of charges being filed against the Tundra’s driver.
Three generations of a Ronan family were in the Dodge Ram. The eldest was taken to St. Pat’s in Missoula where he was treated and released, as was the 18-year-old male driver of the Ford Ranger.
