In brief: No major accidents on slippery roads
Snow-slickened roads caused numerous minor accidents but no major crashes or injuries Friday afternoon and evening in northeastern Washington and North Idaho.
Spokesmen for the Washington State Patrol and the Idaho State Police said most of the accidents were one-car slide-offs in which no one was seriously injured. Sheriff’s offices throughout the region reported few, if any, problems on secondary roads.
“It’s calming down right now,” a WSP spokesman said shortly after 9 p.m. Friday, noting troopers had responded to 67 minor accidents since noon.
Many of them occurred earlier in the day in the West Plains, from the Sunset Hill to Salnave Road, and in the Liberty Lake and Wandermere areas east and north of Spokane.
The Idaho State Police counted 21 “property-damage” accidents and 10 to 15 slide-offs throughout North Idaho.
Traffic moved slowly in the Coeur d’Alene area on roads, which an ISP dispatcher described as a “skating rink.”
In Shoshone County, the Sheriff’s Office said state police responded to “tons” of minor accidents on the Fourth of July Pass, but there were no problems elsewhere in the county.
grant county, wash.
Thieves stealing metal from farmers
Grant County thieves took advantage of the area’s recent windstorm by stealing any metal they could grab.
The Grant County Sheriff’s Office continues to receive complaints of wire theft.
Several farmers lost parts of irrigation units that tipped over due to the nearly 100 mph wind, sheriff’s officials said. Before area farmers could gear up to right their irrigation equipment, thieves acted as opportunists.
One farmer west of Royal City, Wash., estimates that more than 1,000 feet of wire had been stolen from his irrigation units, said Sheriff Frank De Trolio.
Typically if this wire were stripped and burned, then recycled, thieves could receive $1.40 to $3 per pound.
It takes between one and two feet of stripped wire to equal a pound.
The farmers’ cost to replace that same wire is estimated at $5 to $10 per foot, not including the cost of labor, De Trolio said.
Grant County sheriff’s deputies have arrested several wire thieves, who are serving three to six months in county jail.
Spokane
Man accused of injuring infant
A 40-year-old Spokane man was arrested Thursday on a warrant charging him with shaking his girlfriend’s 5-month-old grandson, hospitalizing the infant with a brain injury.
Keith Byron Woody remained in jail Friday night in lieu of $25,000 bail on a charge of second-degree child assault.
Superior Court documents say the victim, Jamarion L. Woticha-Bell, was injured Sept. 22 after his 16-year-old mother, Crystal Bell, went to school and left him in his grandmother’s care.
Bell and her baby lived with her mother, Loretta Croxton, in an apartment at 2309 E. Euclid Ave. Croxton’s 11-year-old son and her boyfriend, Woody, also lived there, according to court documents.
Croxton reportedly told police that she left the infant alone with Woody while she kept a doctor’s appointment.
She said Woody told her everything was fine when she called him 1 1/2 hours later, and she could hear the baby cooing in the background, Spokane police reported.
Court documents say Croxton told officers she called Woody about the same time that Woody told them he noticed the baby’s body go rigid and then limp. Police said Woody told them he started CPR while getting a neighbor to drive him to Holy Family Hospital.
The baby was still hospitalized 10 days later, with bleeding of the brain and eyes. A police report at that time said the victim was to be released soon, with an uncertain long-term prognosis, and placed in foster care.
Quick arrest in coffee stand robbery
A 21-year-old man was arrested Thursday night less than an hour after he allegedly robbed the Bean Me Up espresso stand at 8625 N. Nevada St.
Joseph Calvin Knapp was booked into jail on suspicion of first-degree robbery when a Bean Me Up clerk identified him as the man who robbed her. Court documents say police found Knapp in an apartment at 401 E. Magnesium Road, where they had gone to interview another possible suspect.
The 21-year-old clerk told police Knapp approached the espresso stand with another man about 5:50 p.m., told her he had a gun and demanded money.
Court documents say the clerk believed Knapp had a gun and gave him about $300, including a $100 bill. Officers found a $100 bill in Knapp’s pocket when they arrested him.
Seattle
Gregoire insists on tunnel vote
Gov. Chris Gregoire has given Seattle officials an ultimatum on a replacement for the decrepit Alaskan Way viaduct: No vote, no tunnel.
Unless city residents are able to vote before the end of the legislative session on April 22 about what to do with the 2.2-mile section of state Route 99, “it’s over,” Gregoire said Thursday, “because then I will instruct the (state) Department of Transportation to move forward with” a replacement viaduct.
The 53-year-old two-tier structure, a vital waterfront artery and north-south traffic alternative to Interstate 5, was damaged in the Nisqually earthquake in early 2001, and engineers say it may not survive another major quake.
Compiled from staff and wire reports