Big rigs collide, close U.S. 195

Bryan McKeehan has made hundreds of trips down U.S. Highway 195 from Spokane on jobs installing doors and hardware.

“I’ve seen a lot on this highway,” the 46-year-old said as he was parked among emergency vehicles Monday.

But nothing matched McKeehan’s sense of helplessness while watching a tractor-trailer rig drift into oncoming traffic and slam head on into another semitruck.

“I saw the whole thing unfold in front of me,” he said. “You just want to reach out and move him over, but there was nothing I could do.”

The two semitruck drivers were injured in the crash that also involved three other vehicles just south of the Plaza exit.

The highway was closed at 9:15 a.m., and the Washington State Patrol rerouted traffic until 5:50 p.m. Monday.

“It was an extreme impact,” WSP trooper Kris Schweigert said, looking over his shoulder at tons of twisted chassis and sheet metal. “It should have been a fatal.”

Spokane County firefighters extricated 28-year-old Jason T. Ramirez, of Pingree, Idaho, from the cab of his 2000 Peterbilt tractor, and he was flown by a MedStar helicopter to Sacred Heart Medical Center.

The other semitruck driver, William A. Hill, 35, of Spokane, was transported by ambulance.

Both Ramirez and Hill were responsive and conscious before they were transported, Schweigert said. Both men – who were wearing seat belts – were listed in satisfactory condition Monday night at Sacred Heart.

McKeehan said he was driving southbound in his 1998 Chevy work truck, following Ramirez’s purple Peterbilt tractor that was pulling double-tanker trailers loaded with asphalt tar.

McKeehan noticed the truck slow down just prior to the Plaza exit, about 25 miles south of Spokane, and then he saw the southbound Peterbilt drift left into the northbound lane of the two-lane highway.

“I said to myself, ‘Buddy, you are not on the Interstate,’ ” McKeehan said. “He was in the left lane for about a quarter-mile” before the collision.

As the tanker truck rounded a corner, a northbound semitruck successfully skidded to the right shoulder to avoid colliding with the Ramirez’s truck traveling in the wrong lane, McKeehan said.

Zach Whitlock, 19, was following that northbound semi in his 1999 Hino delivery truck. Whitlock watched the semitruck in front of him skid off the highway. “Then I saw the purple semi coming southbound in our lane,” he said.

Whitlock quickly veered to the right and skidded to a stop in loose gravel just off the highway. “I have no clue how I got over. I thought for sure I was going to start to tumble,” he said.

Behind Whitlock was a 1992 Jeep Cherokee driven by 19-year-old Emily Boehne.

She and her mother, Susan Boehne, 53, of Moscow, were driving to Spokane for a doctor’s appointment when Emily noticed the two trucks ahead of her braking and moving to the right shoulder.

“The second truck pulled over, that’s when I saw the semi. He was right there,” she said. “I got over to the right, that’s what saved us from getting hit head-on.”

Ramirez’s semi clipped the rear-left quarter panel of the Boehne’s Cherokee, which caused it to spin out of control. It rolled two or three times in the grassy shoulder before coming to rest upright, Susan Boehne said.

“She did a very good job,” Boehne said of her daughter. “We feel very fortunate to be alive. And, I would buy a Jeep every single time.”

Both Boehnes suffered cuts and scrapes but the Cherokee, which had pieces and parts strewn through the grass, was a total loss.

Even after the two northbound trucks had skidded out of the way, Ramirez’s truck continued traveling in the wrong lane, McKeehan said. Boehne’s Cherokee was just too close for her to react in time, he said.

“He did not take any action until he hit the Jeep. At that point, it was too late” to avoid hitting Hill’s northbound 1998 Freightliner semi tractor pulling an empty flatbed trailer, McKeehan said.

The two trucks smashed into each other and Hill’s flatbed trailer came unattached. “I looked up and I saw the tanker trailers rolling,” McKeehan said. “It was nasty.”

Trooper Schweigert said investigators were trying to determine whether alcohol or drugs contributed to the crash. One of the asphalt tankers spilled a large amount of tar, but most of it was contained to the roadway.

Troopers had to call in tow trucks with flat-bed trailers to haul out the demolished semis.

Whitlock said he jumped out of his rig as soon as the crash was over. Somehow, Hill, who was covered with blood, was already walking up the road from the crash.

“He knew the day, the date and the only thing he said was his ribs were hurting,” Whitlock said. “I don’t know how he got out of there.”