Trooper said ice, speed were factors

CAREYWOOD - Ice and speed are the suspected contributors to a five-vehicle crash on U.S. Highway 95 which killed a Sandpoint woman early Tuesday morning.

Idaho State Police identified the woman as 34-year-old Joni C. Zantow.

The pileup occurred shortly after 6 a.m.

Zantow was southbound in a 1994 Mercury Tracer and lost control near Blacktail Road and was sideswiped by a Ford Explorer, according to ISP. Zantow's Tracer slid into the northbound lane, where it was struck on the driver's side by a Ford Expedition and in the rear by a Geo Tracker, state police said.

A Ford Probe then collided with the Expedition, ISP said in a news release.

All the drivers involved in the pileup were wearing seat belts, state police said.

The driver of the Explorer, Kelly M. Hutchinson, 45, of Athol; the driver of the Tracker, Robert R. Waterman, 63, of Careywood; the driver of the Expedition, John D. Carter, 38, of Coeur d'Alene; and the driver of the Probe, Danny W. Alderman, 44, of Rathdrum, escaped injury, according to the news release.

A passenger in Alderman's Probe, 29-year-old Brandon B. Nordlander, also came away from the crash without serious injury.

The news release makes no mention of ice or speed, but ISP Cpl. Charles Greear told a Spokane television station both were factors in the pileup. Greear estimated a safe speed on the ice-slicked highway would have been about 35 mph. The stretch of highway where the crash occurred has a posted speed limit of 65 mph.

The deadly crash was among a cluster of dawn crashes elsewhere on U.S. 95 and on Interstate 90, said Greear.

“In about a 10- or 15- minute period of time, we had at least 10 vehicles crash,” Greear told KXLY News.