For the week of March 13 - 19, 2002

Southern Idaho highways turn deadly

Slick roads caused several 
crashes last week

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By GREG MOORE and GREG STAHL
Express Staff Writers

Southern Idaho highways proved deadly last week as two Blaine County men and a Boise woman died in automobile accidents.

Southern Idaho highways were awash in wrecked cars the past two weeks. This accident on Highway 75 Saturday south of Bellevue claimed the life a Boise woman. Express Photo: David N. Selig

A 56-year-old Picabo man died Friday as a result of injuries incurred in a single car accident on U.S. Highway 20 east of Mountain Home afternoon. Ernest J. Courreges, 56, died at Saint Alphonsus Regional Medical Center in Boise as a result of injuries incurred in the accident, Elmore County Sheriff’s Office Chief Deputy Nick Schilz said.

Schilz said that, according to two eyewitness accounts of the accident, Courreges was driving erratically, swerving back and forth and speeding up and slowing down. He drove up an embankment where his car rolled and ejected him.

The reason Courreges was driving erradically is not know, Schilz said. Results from a post mortum blood alcohol test have not yet been returned to the sheriff’s office.

Wood River Journal reporter Christopher J. Ehlers died Saturday in eastern Idaho after the Isuzu pickup truck he was riding in overturned, and he was ejected from the cab.

Patricia Healey, 52, of Bellevue, was driving the vehicle east on U.S. Highway 26 with Ehlers, 41, when the accident occurred near Ririe about 11:40 a.m. She was treated and released from an Idaho Falls hospital.

A 24-year-old Boise woman was killed Saturday on Highway 75 south of Bellevue when a small pickup truck she was driving overturned and slid on its side into a power pole.

According to the Idaho State Police, Kelly A. McMullin was northbound about two miles north of the Timmerman junction at about 10:30 a.m. when she lost control of the 1999 Chevrolet truck on a broken-snow surface and slid off the right shoulder into the pole.

McMullin was pronounced dead at the scene. She was not wearing a seat belt.

Shaun M. Skidmore, 29, also a Boise resident, is the owner of the truck and was a passenger at the time of the accident. He was wearing a seat belt and was transported to St. Luke’s Wood River Medical Center, where he was treated and released.

Slick surfaces on area highways contributed to several other accidents last week.

On March 3, a semi truck towing two tankers holding a total of almost 10,000 gallons of jet fuel overturned on a curve on U.S. Highway 20, eight miles east of Carey.

According to Blaine County Sheriff Walt Femling, the accident occurred about 4:30 p.m. while the truck, owned by Ankrum Trucking of Billings, Mont., was headed west. The truck’s driver, William Bunnell, 31, reported that he reached for a pair of sunglasses, looked up and realized that the truck was already headed into a curve. The truck slid off the outside shoulder and flipped onto its right side.

Femling said Bunnell was found by another driver, lying about 50 feet from the truck. He was transported to St. Luke’s Wood River Medical Center where he was treated and released.

One of the tankers ruptured, spilling about 4,500 gallons of fuel. Carey Fire Chief John Adamson said firefighters dug a trench around the spilled fuel to contain it. The remaining fuel was loaded into another tanker truck.

Both lanes of the highway were closed until early morning the following day.

Femling said Bunnell will be cited for inattentive driving.

On Friday, Highway 75 was closed from south of Bellevue to Timmerman junction at 4:50 p.m. for about half an hour after two vehicles slid off the road at different places. A semi truck also slid off the road south of Timmerman Hill shortly before 5 p.m. None of those accidents resulted in serious injury.

Femling said many drivers are not slowing down enough in response to slick conditions. He also said people should not drive with cruise control when there is snow or ice on the roads.

 

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