Mill Road crash hospitalizes six
A crash on Mill Road sent six people to the hospital and left the road closed for several hours Monday morning.
Jeffrey K. Johnson, 50, was headed north on Mill Road when he turned his 2004 Honda Pilot into the path of a 2001 Dodge Caravan driven by Heidi K. Osusky, 35, said Spokane County sheriff’s spokesman Cpl. Dave Reagan.
The two vehicles collided in the southbound lanes and the two drivers, as well as four passengers in the Caravan, were sent to the hospital for treatment, he said. None of the injuries was life-threatening, Reagan said.
Deputies said the Caravan was likely a total loss. The southbound lanes of Mill Road, in north Spokane County, were closed for several hours while investigators mapped out the crash.
Four hurt in collision near Rathdrum
Four people, including two young children, were taken to Kootenai Medical Center Monday after a head-on collision near Lancaster Road south of Rathdrum.
Suzanne N. Sarad, 25, of Rathdrum, was traveling south on state Highway 41 and didn’t notice traffic backed up while someone made a left turn, according to an Idaho State Police news release. She hit the brakes in her 1999 Dodge Neon and skidded for 100 feet before slamming into a 1990 Geo Metro headed north in another lane.
Todd Hoskins, 31, of Spokane, the driver of the Geo Metro, was taken to Kootenai Medical Center after being extricated from the car. Sarad and two children in her car, ages 5 and 1, were also taken to the hospital. All were treated and released Monday evening.
Everyone involved in the collision was wearing a seat belt. The investigation is ongoing, and Sarad was cited for inattentive driving.
Man injured exploring mine shaft
A man who fell 65 feet down an abandoned mine shaft near Chewelah was taken to a Spokane hospital Monday night.
The man was exploring the mine near United Copper Mine Road with a friend when he fell, said Chewelah Fire Department Chief Doug Sassman.
About 20 people responded to help the man Monday evening, Sassman said. Crews rappelled down the shaft and brought the man out, and he was taken to Spokane by helicopter. The man’s identity and condition weren’t available late Monday.
For safety reasons, Sassman said, people should stay out of abandoned mine shafts. Several old mines dot the mountains north and east of Chewelah.
Burglary suspect arrested walking down street
Police arrested a man on suspicion of burglarizing a South Hill home Sunday after they found him walking down a street with a stolen shotgun and stolen credit cards.
Sean Austin McCormack, 36, was wearing camouflage and carrying the shotgun when police stopped him at Woodfern and South Altamont Boulevard, said police spokesman Lt. Dick Cottam.
The burglary victim reported the incident about 8 a.m., Cottam said.
When police questioned him, McCormack claimed to have bought the credit cards for $5 from a young boy in the neighborhood, Cottam said.
When the boy’s house couldn’t be found, police arrested McCormack on charges of armed burglary, theft of a firearm, theft of credit cards and being a felon in possession of a firearm.
McCormack has 25 previous convictions, Cottam said.
Danielle Perkins, 7, succumbs to tumor
Danielle Perkins, a 7-year-old who spent most of the last year in pediatric oncology units at Deaconess and Sacred Heart medical centers, died Sunday afternoon in Dickinson, N.D.
A horse-lover and Barbie fan, Danielle quickly made friends in Spokane. Her family was living in Butte, Mont., at the time of her diagnosis, and stayed at the Ronald McDonald House during her treatment in Spokane.
Her parents recently moved her to St. Joseph’s Hospital in Dickinson, N.D., so that she could be cared for closer to their new home.
Danielle was diagnosed with Wilms’ tumor in January 2004. She was born May 25, 1998, in Billings, Mont., and, on Sept. 18, was the subject of a column in The Spokesman-Review’s IN Life section.
She is survived by her parents, Bill and Misti Perkins, and her sister, Ashley Perkins, all of Bowman, N.D.; her grandparents, Leslie and Rusty Momberg of Boulevard, Calif., and Bill and Jeannie Perkins of Roundup, Mont.; her great-grandparents, Lyla Anders of Butte, Mont., and Arlee Momberg of Mesa, Ariz.; and numerous aunts, uncles and cousins.
Her funeral service will be at 11 a.m. Friday at the Bowman Lutheran Church. Krebsbach Funeral Service in Bowman will handle arrangements.
Farm worker’s death due to hantavirus
Ephrata, Wash. The death of a farm worker in Grant County last month has been traced to hantavirus, health officials said.
The worker’s name and home town were not disclosed in a county Health Department announcement Thursday, but the agency’s personal health services director, Peggy Grigg, said authorities were providing hantavirus prevention information to businesses and residents in the area where the worker lived.
Laboratory tests this month showed the worker died of the disease, which is spread by exposure to the dried feces and urine of rodents, mostly deer mice.
The disease was virtually unknown in the United States before an outbreak in 1993 in the Four Corners area of Utah, Colorado, New Mexico and Arizona. Since then Washington state has had 27 reported cases, nine of them fatal. One of the last deaths from hantavirus in the state was in Skagit County in 2003.
About 14 percent of the 1,000 deer mice that have been tested for hantavirus in Washington since 1993 have been carriers, according to Dr. John Grendon, public health veterinarian at the state Health Department.
“Although it is rare, hantavirus continues to be a threat,” Grendon was quoted as saying in the county agency’s statement. “It’s important for people, especially those living in or visiting rural areas where deer mice are most common, to know how they can prevent this potentially deadly disease.”