Van accident kills woman in Gooding
By PETER BOLTZ
Express Staff Writer
GOODING -- A Sun Valley Express van
carrying 16 passengers collided with another van driven by a Gooding woman
Jan. 10, killing her instantly.
The Idaho State Trooper on the scene, Bob
Bingham, said Florence Ascuena, 35, was traveling north on 2000 East Road
in Gooding and ran a stop sign at the intersection with state Highway 26.
Bingham reported that Ascuena’s vehicle,
a 1996 Dodge van, was broadsided by the Sun Valley Express van, a 1999
Ford 550, as the shuttle serevice van was traveling west on Highway 26 to
the Boise airport. The impact threw Ascuena from her vehicle.
The speed limit on Highway 26 at the
intersection is 65 mph.
Bingham said he believed Ascuena would have
survived if she had been wearing her seat belt.
Only one person in the 24-passenger Express
van was injured. Glenda Nicol, 64, of Ketchum, suffered a sprained wrist
and was treated and released from Gooding Memorial Hospital.
Gooding police said Ascuena was on her way
to a daycare center she owned. She was married to Gooding police Lt. Andy
Ascuena.
Robin Holstad, office supervisor for Sun
Valley Express in Boise, said her office was able to rescheduled the
flights of the passengers and that all of them, although shaken by the
experience, went "on their way."
