Mom still in hospital after crash

Two 14-year-old Colbert boys who were seriously injured in a fatal crash Friday on U.S. Highway 195 at Rosalia have been released from Sacred Heart Medical Center.

However, Charlie Solberg and Allan Farnham, both Riverside Middle School eighth-graders, remain under observation for possible internal injuries.

The boys were released Monday, but Solberg’s mother, Shelley Solberg, remained in intensive care at Sacred Heart Medical Center with what her husband said are severe leg and head injuries.

“She’s looking at a bunch of surgeries and probably a year before she thinks about walking again,” her husband, Rick Solberg, said Monday.

Still, Solberg added, “We’re considering ourselves very lucky. We’re thinking of the deceased girl, and that’s a very sad thing.”

Spokane resident Stephanie Calvert, 21, was killed when her northbound Ford Focus veered across the center line and collided with the Chevrolet Tahoe sport utility vehicle driven by Shelley Solberg. Both vehicles had been traveling about 60 mph

Shelley Solberg suffered numerous broken bones, from her feet to her knees, when the Tahoe’s firewall slammed into her legs. The vehicle’s airbag probably saved her life, Rick Solberg said. He said his son, who ordinarily would have been in the front seat, was riding in the third row of seats with Farnham, “which probably helped them survive.”

Even so, Solberg said, his son suffered three broken fingers and possible cranial bleeding. Charlie’s injuries are of particular concern because of a serious congenital heart problem that had caused doctors to warn against impacts such as being struck in the chest by a volleyball, his father said.

Farnham suffered a broken wrist and possible internal injuries caused by his seatbelt. Doctors so far have found no seriously damaged organs, Rick Solberg said.

He said the boys are good students who were taking a day off from school to visit gem shops in Lewiston.

The accident was reported to the Washington State Patrol by the vehicle’s OnStar emergency service. Rick Solberg said his son remembers hearing a radio operator asking, just before he passed out, “Did something just happen?”