Friday — January 30, 2004

Bellevue sledder, 5, collides with car

---

By GREG STAHL
Express Staff Writer

A 5-year-old Bellevue girl escaped relatively unharmed Tuesday, Jan. 27, when she collided with a car while riding a sled.

"She sledded right into the street," Bellevue Marshall Randy Tremble said. "Literally, she popped up over a snow bank and went right down under the car."

Jaqueline Zavalla-Billacana was riding her sled near her East Cottonwood home and rode into the path of Bellevue resident Gary Moore, who was driving a 1994 Chevrolet Blazer.

Moore was "on top of it" and was driving slowly, Tremble said. That enabled him to stop before the child slid and became trapped under his truck.

Tremble said Zavalla-Billacana was transported by Wood River Ambulance to St. Luke’s Wood River Medical Center, where she was treated and released.

"She’s a nice kid from a nice family," Tremble said. "She had just been told not to do that run, and she did it anyway."

Tremble said parents and children can learn from this near miss.

"We’re not going to ask kids not to sled," he said. "They’re going to sled. Drivers should be heads up, just like Mr. Moore was doing."

 

The Idaho Mountain Express is distributed free to residents and guests throughout the Sun Valley, Idaho resort area community. Subscribers to the Idaho Mountain Express will read these stories and others in this week's issue.