Cda Woman Killed By Skidding Potato Truck

A North Idaho woman lying injured along a highway was crushed to death by a skidding potato truck.

Freezing rain turned Interstate 82 into a sheet of ice Thursday night, with numerous jackknifed trucks and wrecked vehicles littering the roadway through the Tri-Cities.

Joel Guidry and Carisa Simpson were in one of the wrecks and, when they got out of their car, spotted Lucille J. Ellis, 73, lying about 200 feet away.

Several people had stopped to help when they heard the sound of a truck scraping along the concrete berm along the side of the road, Guidry said. Everyone scrambled off the road.

The potato truck plowed into one stopped vehicle, then smashed into two others. Ellis was dragged down the interstate until the truck came to rest against the berm, with her body underneath, witnesses said.

Witnesses said she may have been thrown from her vehicle during one of the wrecks.