Commuter swerved to avoid yearling but hit Grizzly 399, police report shows

JACKSON —- The commuter who hit and killed Grizzly 399 on Tuesday night in the Snake River Canyon was aware of wildlife in the area and driving cautiously when the accident occurred, officials said Friday.

He also managed to avoid one bear — presumably 399’s yearling cub — after two bears entered the road ahead of him, according to a redacted police report released Friday evening to the Jackson Hole Daily.

“While traveling southbound on Hwy 89 two bears entered the roadway into [redacted] lane of travel,” states the police report, written Wednesday by Lincoln County Sheriff’s Office Deputy James Hunting.

The driver “swerved missing one but the other made contact with [redacted] vehicle, causing the front-end collision,” Hunting wrote.

The car’s airbag deployed and, when the deputy arrived at 11:22 p.m., first responders were on scene.

“No signs of impairment, distracted driving or criminal activity were observed,” Hunting wrote. “The amount of damage observed was consistent to a vehicle collision with an animal at the posted speed.”

On Friday, law enforcement provided the Daily with public records for the first time since the fatal crash that killed 399. They also provided in-depth interviews about the accident. A four-legged celebrity, Grizzly 399 was a world-famous matriarch, raising 18 cubs over nearly three decades in Grand Teton National Park where throngs of wildlife watchers have followed her every move.

Officials said the driver was not at fault in Tuesday’s collision and argued that blaming the driver was wrong.

“It truly was an accident,” Lincoln County Sheriff’s Office Patrol Lieutenant John Stetzenbach said in an interview. “Those things do happen with the wildlife that we have here in Wyoming. It was not the driver driving in a careless manner or in a distracted manner.”

Stetzenbach said the Sheriff’s Office would not identify the driver.

“There has been so much hate mail out there against the driver that we are not going to release his name,” he said.

The Sheriff’s Office hasn’t received hate mail directly, and Stetzenbach hasn’t seen anything online that would rise to the level of a threat against the driver. But reporters have told him about “some rather explicit discontent with the driver” online. The lieutenant logged onto TikTok on Thursday night, searched for the 399 incident and saw comments asking whether the driver was arrested or ticketed, and saying that the accident was the driver’s fault, not Grizzly 399’s.

“There’s nothing to show that he was on a cell phone or distracted driving at all,” Stetzenbach said. “The bear stepped right out into the road. He was unable to brake in time.”

Stetzenbach was not at the scene Tuesday night but relayed an account from Hunting, who investigated the crash.

In the police report, Hunting said the accident happened at milepost 126.9, roughly two miles east of Wolf Creek Campground.

Stetzenbach didn’t know who reported the collision, but he assumes it was a passerby given limited cell service in the canyon.

The motorist, driving a Subaru, was not cited because the investigation indicated that he wasn’t exceeding the 55 mph speed limit.

Typically, when investigating a collision, Stetzenbach said law enforcement will look at the type of vehicle, damage to the vehicle, and what the vehicle hit. If damage outstrips the norm given the speed limit, car and animal, the driver was likely speeding.

That wasn’t the case Tuesday night, Stetzenbach said.

Still, the car was badly damaged and had to be towed away.

Grizzly 399 was killed by the impact, Stetzenbach said, and appeared to be dead when the driver left his vehicle to examine the animal. There was no evidence that the famous bruin attempted to flee the scene as animals often do after they’ve been hit by a car. When Hunting arrived on scene, he reported that 399’s body was in the “barrow pit” next to the road.

The deputy noticed that the bear had ear tags and called the Wyoming Game and Fish Department. A warden was dispatched to the scene and was able to identify 399 based on the tags, a lip tattoo and microchip. Game and Fish collected 399’s body and turned it over to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, which has custody and is still determining next steps.

“There’s a misconception that there was no investigation,” said Dan Thompson, large carnivore supervisor for Game and Fish. “But obviously there was a full investigation, as we do with every grizzly bear mortality, into the cause of death.”

A necropsy — an investigation of 399’s remains — confirmed that 399’s cause of death was consistent with a vehicle collision, Fish and Wildlife Service spokesperson Joe Szuszwalak said in a statement.

The driver was not investigated further because there was no evidence that he did anything wrong, Thompson said. The Fish and Wildlife Service, like the Sheriff’s Office, reached the same conclusion.

“No criminal infractions were observed,” Hunting wrote.

Commuters saw grizzly bears farther north in the Canyon on Monday night, near the Pritchard Boat Ramp. One driver reported seeing three grizzlies chowing down on a carcass, while another driver took a picture of two bruins that bear buffs said were 399 and her large cub.

Game and Fish, however, hadn’t received reports of bears in the area, let alone reports of 399 in the Snake River Canyon, Thompson said.

Wyoming Highway Patrol Lieutenant Matt Brackin said he also didn’t hear anything about bears in the area until Tuesday night.

“Unless it’s a hazard, we probably wouldn’t know about it,” he said.

On Tuesday night, a few minutes before receiving the call about the crash involving 399, the Lincoln County Sheriff’s Office received a report about animals on the roadway in the Snake River Canyon, but Stetzenbach said he didn’t field the call and didn’t know specifics.

Brackin said that call was transferred to the Wyoming Highway Patrol around 10:40 p.m. Brackin said transferring delays are normal.

“The call was about two bears in the road,” Brackin said. “It looked like they were trying to get up a hill, going back and forth near the guardrail and the hill. That’s basically the information that we got.”

When the highway patrol got the call about bears on the road, it dispatched a trooper to the scene. But the trooper was busy responding to a DUI and a rollover crash just north of Thayne. Highway patrol notified Game and Fish and asked the Lincoln County Sheriff’s Office if they had a unit closer to the scene. Deputy Hunting arrived first and had investigated the crash by the time highway patrol got there.

Caren Carpenter-Marshall, who saw and photographed 399 the day before the collision, travels the canyon daily, commuting to Star Valley. In April, she hit a deer but didn’t see the animal until seconds before. On Monday, Carpenter-Marshall didn’t see 399 until she was “right up on her.” She understands how someone could be surprised.

“Especially with it getting dark sooner and light later and her being as dark as she was,” Carpenter-Marshall said, “somebody could’ve been right up on her and not even seen her until it was too late.”

Grizzly 399’s yearling cub is not collared and has not been seen since the accident. Wildlife biologists have said the cub has a good chance of survival given its age.

This story was published on October 26, 2024.