Semi hits dump truck at highway crossing
A semi rear-ended a dump truck Wednesday on state Highway 53 at the same intersection where a collision killed a Rathdrum teen last week.
Idaho State Police Trooper Jerry Stemm said the most recent accident had nothing to do with the road, a straight stretch of highway near Rathdrum.
“It just comes down to not paying attention,” he said.
Randy S. Shoemaker, 41, of Blanchard was waiting to turn south onto Atlas Road when his Mack dump truck was rear-ended about 8:43 a.m., according to the ISP report.
Howard P. Degelmann of Saskatchewan, Canada, was driving the Freightliner semi. Degelmann, 55, was treated and released at Kootenai Medical Center. Shoemaker was uninjured, the report said.
It is the same spot where Kerriann Wright, 16, died Friday after her Chevy Blazer crossed the center
line, crashing head-on into a pickup driven by 60-year-old Agnes V. Banks of Rathdrum.
A KMC nursing supervisor said Banks was in good condition Wednesday while Kerriann Wright’s father, Jesse, remained in critical condition.
Wright’s brothers are at Sacred Heart Medical Center in Spokane. A nursing supervisor said that Nicholas Wright, 12, is in satisfactory condition while Nathan Wright, 13, is in critical condition.
– Erica Curless
Coeur d’Alene
Annual fitness walk to combat MS
Coeur d’Alene residents can get fit and raise money to fight a degenerative illness Saturday during an annual walk sponsored by the Inland Northwest chapter of the National Multiple Sclerosis Society.
Participants can select distances of 2 or 5 miles during the event, which begins at 10 a.m. at North Idaho College, 1000 W. Gardner Ave., Coeur d’Alene. Day-of-event registration begins at 9 a.m. This year’s local sponsor is Parker Toyota.
Walkers are urged to seek fundraising pledges to help pay for research and treatment of the disease that affects an estimated 2,000 local residents and more than 400,000 people nationwide. The MS Walk is one of the organization’s most successful fundraisers
The walk includes food and free prizes. For more information, call (509) 482-2022 or 1-800-344-4867 or visit www.nationalmssociety.org– Staff reports
Burley, Idaho
Burley fire chief’s son killed in Iraq blast
Flags were flying at half-staff in this southern Idaho farming community after the son of the fire chief died Saturday in Iraq when an improvised explosive device went off near his Humvee convoy.
Army Pfc. Jacob H. Allcott, 21, of Caldwell, was killed along with three other members of the U.S. Army’s 4th Infantry Division from Fort Hood, Texas, the Department of Defense announced Tuesday. A 2002 graduate of Caldwell High School, Allcott’s father, Bruce, was fire chief in Caldwell for 15 years before retiring in 2004 and moving to Burley, where he is chief of the city’s fire department.
Burley Mayor Jon Anderson ordered the city’s flags lowered to half-staff in memory of Jacob Allcott.
“I heard the news that an Allcott from Caldwell had died, and I asked if it was Bruce’s nephew or something,” Anderson told the South Idaho Press. “When I was told it was his son, it just knocked the wind out of me.”
Anderson said Jacob Allcott’s parents were out of the country attending a reunion at the time of his death.
The flag at Caldwell High School was also flying at half-staff in honor of Allcott, who friends recalled as quiet and intelligent.
The three other soldiers killed in the April 22 blast were Spc. Eric D. King, 29, of Vancouver, Wash.; Sgt. Kyle A. Colnot, 23, of Arcadia, Calif.; and Pvt. Michael E. Bouthot, 19, of Fall River, Mass.
– Associated Press