CHEYENNE - Jean Renken's spine was permanently broken in the 22-vehicle chain-reaction crash last March that killed six people and injured dozens on Interstate 80 near Elk Mountain.

The 72-year-old grandmother from Bertrand, Neb., suffers constant pain and is still working toward reimbursement for medical costs.

Nine months after the pileup, the Wyoming Highway Patrol has not released the results of its crash investigation, leaving victims including Renken and their families unable to settle insurance claims or litigation.

The state attorney general's office has advised the Highway Patrol to withhold the investigation records until prosecutors in Carbon County, where the pileup occurred, decide whether to pursue criminal charges against some drivers, according to Capt. Perry Jones of the Highway Patrol.

Highway Patrol officials expect only minor charges to result from the crash, Jones said, but they have chosen to follow the attorney general's advice and withhold the findings of the investigation, which concluded in July.

Carbon County Attorney David Clark, meanwhile, gained access to investigation documents five months ago but has not announced a decision about possible charges, Jones said. Clark did not respond to inquiries about the case from the Casper Star-Tribune.

Clark lost his re-election bid in the August primary to fellow Republican Cindy Delancey, and a decision probably won't occur until after Delancey takes office next month, Jones said.

By comparison, the Highway Patrol took only one month to release the results of a complex investigation after a 36-vehicle chain-reaction pileup in 2004 in Albany County that killed seven. Albany County Attorney Richard Bohling had reviewed the investigation by then and declined to pursue charges.

"I would really like to get this released, because the number of requests we're legitimately receiving from insurance companies and attorneys representing various parties in that crash is just phenomenal," Jones said, referring to the March crash. "We have lists and lists of people we need to send this huge package of information out to."

Those who survived the March pileup described a nightmarish scene of twisted vehicle bodies, screaming victims and the intermittent crunch of vehicles joining the fray.

The crash occurred about 90 miles west of Cheyenne when blowing snow cut visibility to almost zero and vehicles began to collide, according to the Highway Patrol. I-80 was closed overnight while wreckers and rescue crews tended to victims and wreckage.

Four members of a single Conifer, Colo., family perished in the wreck. Laura Graves, 40, and her sons Kaleb, 18, and Cameron, 14, and her daughter, Kelsey, 16, died when their Mercury Sable crashed into a tractor-trailer truck and then was hit from behind by another rig.

Laura Graves' husband is among those who has been unable to view the investigation, Jones said.

Patrick Guinn, 57, of Loveland, Colo., and Christopher Starz, 22, of Eagle River, Wis., also died in the crash.

Some in the insurance and towing industries said the crash never should have happened. They criticized the Highway Patrol and the Wyoming Department of Transportation for keeping I-80 open in poor driving conditions that day.

"I think they open it for economic reasons rather than taking care of the safety of the motoring public," Tom Hansen, owner of two auto body shops and a tow-truck business in Laramie, said at the time.

Highway officials and a state lawmaker acknowledged pressure to sustain the traffic flowing on I-80, a critical east-west truck route. But they said safety is a chief consideration, and they had no regrets.

'Public information'

Renken was on her way home after a trip to Salt Lake City the day of the crash. She was driving a Chevy S-10 pickup in which her husband, Norris Renken, 73, and daughter, Chris Ralston, 47, were passengers.

Jean Renken said she was traveling about 45 mph when a big rig struck her from behind and spun her vehicle into the median.

She was hospitalized with severe back and rib pain. Ralston was injured but declined to be hospitalized because she lacked health insurance.

Norris Renken, who suffered minor injuries, said the official crash investigation should be made public in part to shine a light on the truck drivers who he said were driving too fast in extreme winter conditions.

"I don't have a vendetta, but I think the public should know, hey, this is what sometimes happens, and truckers should know that too," Renken said in a telephone interview last week.

Henry Bailey Jr., a Cheyenne lawyer representing the Renkens, said the public deserves to know what happened that day.

"This is public information," Bailey said.

Reach capital bureau reporter Jared Miller at (307) 632-1244 or at jared.miller@casperstartribune.net.