Passenger In Coma After Van Hits Tree

A 37-year-old man was in a coma Friday after the driver of the car he was riding in lost control on state Highway 5 in St. Maries, the Idaho State Police said.

A Sacred Heart Medical Center nursing supervisor said late Friday that Jerry W. White, 37, of St. Maries, hadn’t yet arrived at the hospital but was being taken by ambulance after fog made a medical helicopter transport impossible.

Alan S. Daniels, 40, the driver of the 1978 Ford Thunderbird, was eastbound on Highway 5 when he lost control, went off the highway’s north side over a 30-foot embankment and struck a tree, the state police said.

Both men were extricated from the car after the accident at 5:12 p.m.