Bozeman woman killed in weekend crash ID'd

A Bozeman woman is dead after crashing a stolen BNSF Railway vehicle into a tree Saturday morning in Whitefish.

The Flathead County Sheriff's Office has identified the woman as 33-year-old Endsley Barrett.

According to Whitefish Police Chief Bill Dial, Barrett was in town to attend a wedding. It is believed she spent Friday evening at a few bars where she consumed numerous alcoholic beverages, Dial said.

Later that night Barrett walked to the downtown Whitefish Depot where she saw a crew with BNSF Railway getting into a work shuttle that she thought was a taxi. The railway crew informed her it wasn’t a taxi service.

Barrett then took a BNSF-owned Suburban from the depot and drove north over the viaduct on Wisconsin Avenue at a high rate of speed, Dial said.

She hit the curb on the east side of the street then swerved to the west before colliding head-on with a tree and sign for the Chair 3 apartments. The tree was snapped at its base and the vehicle came to rest in front of the Hunter and Co. store.

Emergency crews responded after midnight and found Barrett breathing but unresponsive. She was taken to Kalispell Regional Medical Center where she died Sunday morning as a result of injuries sustained in the wreck, Dial said.

Dial says they won’t know a blood alcohol level or if other substances were involved until results from a toxicology test are returned. An investigation into the incident is ongoing.