Montana Man Stranded in Vehicle for 21 Hours After Fatal Crash on I-90

A couple from Montana, Laureen and Rodney Emmert, were traveling from Columbia Falls to Colorado Springs, Colorado on Interstate 90 when their 2004 Hyundai Sonata left the roadway and crashed in a creek bed on Tuesday, April 19 around 3:00 p.m. eight miles south of Sheridan, Wyoming. A release from the Wyoming Highway Patrol says no one witnessed the crash and only Rodney survived to be found around 12:30 p.m. the next day.

Rodney told Troopers that both he and his wife had unbuckled their seat belts while attempting to retrieve something from the front floorboard area of the car.  The vehicle, which had the cruise control set at 75 mph, drifted off the left side of the roadway and into the median where it then became airborne after striking some trees in a deep ravine.  It landed on the other side of the ravine in the cattails of a small creek where the vehicle struck a concrete culvert wall along the creek bed before coming to rest in deep mud near the entrance of the five foot tall culvert.

Sergeant Stephen Townsend of the Wyoming Highway Patrol said the car was not visible from the roadway and there were no skid marks.

Relatives of the Emmerts' became concerned when they failed to arrive at their destination. One of the adult children was able to make brief cell phone contact with Rodney on the morning of the 20th during which he was able to say, "south of Sheridan, need help, send helicopter" before the call was dropped.

Wyoming Highway Patrol Troopers and deputies from the Sheridan County Sheriff's Department then began searching the area along I-90 where the Emmerts were to have traveled. A highway construction worker working on a project on I-90 near the area noticed the top of a vehicle at mile post #33 and found the Emmerts.

Laureen Emmert, 53, was declared dead at the scene while her husband Rodney, 54, was hospitalized at Sheridan Memorial Hospital.