Two Die In Crashes On Icy Roads Snowfall Keeps Police Busy Responding To Traffic Accidents

A St. Maries man died driving in heavy snowfall Saturday evening, while a lack of snow may have played a role in a snowboarding accident that critically injured a Coeur d’Alene man over the weekend.

For many, the arrival of a snowstorm buoyed hopes for a white Christmas and long-awaited winter recreation.

But the two to five inches of white stuff kept law enforcement and emergency medical personnel busy responding to slide-offs, rollovers and weather-related traffic accidents. Roads in Washington were not as bad, but weather did contribute to the death of a Post Falls woman just outside Kettle Falls Sunday.

Icy conditions and heavy snowfall contributed to the accident that killed Arlo James (Jim) Rothauge, 52, a retired St. Maries resident, at about 8 p.m. Saturday.

Rothauge failed to negotiate a curve on Highway 5 between Plummer and St. Maries and glanced off a tree on the left shoulder, police said. His 1994 Chrysler rolled down the embankment and landed upside down in Benewah Lake. Rothauge’s wife was following in another car and witnessed the accident, Idaho State Police Officer Brad Doty said.

“It’s a very tragic thing,” Doty said. “The tires on the car were summer tires, in very poor condition.”

Rothauge was pronounced dead at the hospital.

Earlier Saturday, 23-year-old Aaron Culpepper of Coeur d’Alene was airlifted to Kootenai Medical Center with head and neck injuries after a snowboarding accident at Schweitzer Mountain Resort.

Culpepper was snowboarding with his brother and another man at the 6,000-foot level of the Kaniksu run when he fell and hit his head on a rock, Schweitzer officials said.

He was taken off the mountain by the ski patrol, transferred to a waiting ambulance and then transported to Coeur d’Alene via helicopter.

Family members said Culpepper was in critical condition Sunday afternoon.

At 2 p.m. Sunday, Schweitzer had 44 inches at the top and 31 inches at the bottom of its runs, significantly less than this time last year, when ski resorts reported a seven-foot snow-pack.

Post Falls resident Ilene L. Cox, 58, and her husband Roger were about nine miles west of Kettle Falls on Dead Man Creek Road in snowy conditions when Roger Cox failed to negotiate a turn about 10:30 a.m. Sunday, the Washington State Patrol said.

The couple’s red and silver Dodge pickup tumbled about 80 feet down the embankment. Ilene Cox was trapped inside.

“When the vehicle came to rest, it landed on the passenger side and landed on a stump,” a WSP dispatcher said.

When the troopers arrived, Ilene Cox was dead. Roger Cox was unharmed. He was not wearing a seatbelt, troopers said. Ilene Cox was.

Temperatures dropped below freezing late Sunday afternoon, triggering a series of mostly minor traffic accidents throughout North Idaho. A car carrying a family of six slid off the road and hit a power pole head-on near Hell’s Gulch. One child received a minor bump on the head, but seatbelts prevented any other injuries, Doty said.

“The road was just extremely slick, I could barely stand up on it,” he added.

Post Falls police reported a non-injury rollover at I-90 and Spokane Street, as well as a two-car injury accident on Greens Ferry and East Riverview Drive. Shoshone County reported minor injuries to two people involved in a slide-off along the Coeur d’Alene River.

, DataTimes MEMO: This sidebar appeared with the story: MORE SNOW COMING The National Weather Service is forecasting snow starting again this evening, with flurries on and off through Tuesday.

The following fields overflowed: BYLINE = Andrea Vogt Staff writer Reporter Ward Sanderson contributed to this report.