Fairchild Identifies Man Killed In Five-Vehicle Crash

Fairchild Air Force Base officials identified a man killed Thursday in a five-vehicle accident as Airman 1st Class Donald. E. Sweet II of Portland.

Sweet, a 20-year-old survival school instructor, was driving a military van that hit a tractor-trailer rig that had jackknifed.

Two other Air Force vehicles and a civilian car piled up in the accident on state Highway 20 near Cusick, Wash.

Senior Airman Brian W. Kuhn, 23, who was riding in the van with Sweet, suffered a concussion, dislocated hip and fractured leg. He was listed in serious condition Friday at Sacred Heart Medical Center.

No one else was seriously injured in the accident, the State Patrol reported.

According to troopers, Dennis M. Lee’s tractor-trailer jackknifed on the snow-covered highway and was blocking both lanes. Lee, 52, is from Granum, Alberta.

Sweet’s van hit the tractor-trailer, then was hit from behind by a military bus driven by Airman 1st Class Travis M. Hughes, 21. There were several survival school students in the bus, the Air Force reported.

The bus was hit by a pickup driven by Staff Sgt. Brett L. Brown, 29. A Ford Explorer driven by Earle O. Ostlie, 59, of Post Falls, then hit the pickup.

The accident occurred about 10 a.m., as the Air Force instructors and students were returning from training, Fairchild officials reported.

, DataTimes