Frustrated driver shoves Yellowstone park worker with Jeep, prosecutors say
.jpeg "A frustrated driver drove into a Yellowstone National Park worker who was directing traffic, federal prosecutors said.")
A frustrated driver went the wrong way through a construction zone and shoved a Yellowstone National Park worker with his Jeep, federal prosecutors said.
Two park workers were directing traffic in a construction zone near Canyon Junction in September 2024 when “they noticed a Jeep approaching the intersection and driving the wrong way down the road to bypass waiting traffic,” the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Wyoming said in a May 22 news release.
One of the employees told the driver he couldn’t continue and needed to back up, prosecutors said. The other worker “stood in the way of the Jeep with a stop sign.”
The driver “accelerated, driving into the employee and physically pushing him backwards,” prosecutors said. “The employee jumped out of the Jeep’s path after it struck him.”
Yellowstone National Park Service law enforcement officers later stopped the driver, 67-year-old David Tyler Regnier from Bend, Oregon, and arrested him, prosecutors said.
Regnier’s attorneys did not immediately respond to McClatchy News’ request for comment on May 26.
A federal jury then convicted him of assaulting a federal employee with a dangerous weapon after a three-day trial, prosecutors said. Regnier’s sentencing is scheduled for Aug. 7, 2025. He “faces up to 20 years in federal prison with three years of supervised release to follow, up to a $250,000 fine and a $100 special assessment.”
“Our office will take a strong stance against the frequent acts of violence directed at public servants who are merely doing their jobs to protect the community,” acting U.S. Attorney Stephanie I. Sprecher said in the release.
