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01-08-09 Holiday Car Accidents
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Holiday Car Accidents
By Dave Maxwell, Staff Writer
Icy road conditions had a direct effect on a one-vehicle rollover accident that injured four members of an Idaho family. Lincoln County Sheriff Kerry Lee said the late model Ford Explorer SUV travelling south failed to negotiate the corner of the icy road at the Cove, a bit north of Caliente on December 25. The vehicle slid off the road, went through the guard rail, rolled down the embankment and into the marshes alongside the creek below, coming to rest on the passenger side. “The roads were just straight ice,” said Lee, “I couldn’t even walk across it when we got there.”
Lee said the family consisted of the mother, grandmother and two children, but ages and names were not reported. He said all suffered some minor cuts and bruises, soreness, but no serious injuries. “We had to get all of them out through the roof or front windshield,” Lee said. All were taken by ambulance to Grover C. Dils Medical Center where they were examined, treated and released. The fact that each person was wearing a seat belt had a lot to do with injuries not being more serious, Lee said.
Both Panaca and Caliente Fire Departments responded, as did both Caliente and Panaca Ambulance service. Lee said he was glad to have that many people on scene, “because we needed all of them.” Snow and rain had fallen Christmas Day and turned the roads to sheets of ice.
Two days later, on December 27, Nevada Highway Patrol (NHP) investigated two separate accidents south of Alamo. Sergeant Rob Oakden of the Alamo NHP office said the first accident occurred about 10 pm on U.S. Highway 93 just south of the Upper Pahranagat Lake. Oakden said a northbound 2001 Ford Mustang, driven by a 16-year old juvenile from Mesa, Arizona, lost control and hit the guardrail. The driver was uninjured. Oakden said the driver claimed he “swerved to miss something.”
A few minutes later, a 1998 Chevy van, driven by Daniel Hoff, 42, of Reardon, Washington, also heading north, came along and clipped the rear of the Mustang as it sat in the roadway. Sgt. Oakden said Hoff reported he did not see the blacked out Mustang sitting sideways in the roadway until the last moment, swerved to miss it, but hit the right rear of the Mustang with the right front of the van, and went into the guardrail on the far side of the road. Hoff, his wife, and three children, were all wearing seat belts and suffered no injuries. Oakden said the driver of the Arizona car was not in the vehicle at the time of the second accident.
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