Superior Fire Chief Steve Temple arrived at a predawn emergency call on Interstate 90 and saw one of the most horrific wrecks he had ever witnessed. At the bottom of an icy hill just west of the Quartz Creek Rest Area, five semi-trucks were knotted into a pile of twisted metal.

“It came in a very quick sequence,” Temple said of the string of collisions. The call came into Montana Highway Patrol, and the Superior Volunteer Fire Department arrived around 4 a.m. and began to assess the situation. In all, there were two fatalities and a number of injuries associated with the crash. Both eastbound and westbound lanes of the interstate were closed for hours, and traffic was diverted through Superior for the rest of the day. One of the westbound lanes was opened by noon, but the eastbound lane wasn’t cleared until midnight.

THE INITIAL wreck was caused by a truck with a flatbed loaded with lumber. It hit black ice and jackknifed on a railroad crossing bridge near mile marker 56.7. Lumber was scattered across the eastbound lanes; however, neither the driver nor the passenger sustained injury. The second vehicle was a UPS truck driven by Vilyam Veresko of Moses Lake, Wash. He swerved to miss the lumber truck and his vehicle jumped over the median and guard rails, landing across both westbound lanes. Veresko survived the crash, but jumped over the guard rail to avoid oncoming traffic and plunged 100 feet to his death onto the railroad tracks below.

“The driver’s door was pinned against the guard rail and so he got out on the passenger side,” said Temple. “He got out into traffic and that’s when he made the decision to jump over the railing.”

MHP Trooper Terry Rosenbaum was at the scene and stated in an early report that since it was dark, the out-of-state driver was probably disoriented and didn’t know where he was, and ROsenbaum could understand the driver’s confusion. A truck driver approaching the scene told authorities he had time to stop, but saw Veresko jump the guard rail.

A third truck then came over the hill and slammed into the flatbed, which crushed the cab. The driver was trapped and Superior firefighters used extraction equipment to pull him out. Temple said initially the man seemed OK, but then he suddenly collapsed. He had suffered from a broken back and was taken to Mineral Community Hospital. From there he was airlifted to Kalispell Regional Medical Center in serious condition.

NEXT, A COUPLE in an SUV slid into the crash scene. One of the truck drivers told them to back up and get out of there immediately because it was dangerous. They backed up the icy hill in the median and got onto a westbound lane and drove away. Shortly after they left, the fourth semi-truck hit the carnage.

“If they had been there, they would have been crushed in the middle of it. That truck driver probably saved their lives,” said Temple.

That fourth driver was uninjured, but the fifth trucker to collide was 32-year-old Jatinderpal Singh of Delta, British Columbia, and he died at the scene. Temple also said a passenger in one of the trucks was found walking down the freeway in bare feet, “I assume he was in the sleeper cab sleeping and had a rude awakening.” He had suffered a broken arm.

In addition to the Superior Volunteer Fire Department, multiple other agencies responded to the scene, including: St Regis Volunteer Fire, Superior Volunteer Ambulance, Mineral County Sheriff Office, Missoula County Sheriff’s Office, Montana Highway Patrol, Montana DOT, Montana Motor Carriers Division, Frenchtown Rural Fire District, and Missoula Emergency Services.

Around 5 a.m., the Frenchtown Rural Fire District (FRFD) responded to assist. “We were under Steve’s command,” said fire chief Joe Calnan. His department brought two vehicles from the Alberton station, a heavy rescue vehicle which had extraction equipment, a crew truck, command truck, utility trucks, and two ambulances, one from Missoula.

“They did an awesome job dealing with the situation,” Calnan said.

UNFORTUNATELY, one of the Frenchtown fire crew members, Kyle Rauch, suffered an injury. As he walked onto the bridge deck he slipped on ice and fell over the guard rail, plunging nearly 40 feet to the ground.

Calnan said Rauch was in a free fall and did not hit the embankment before landing on a patch of sand. “It was like falling from a four-story building. He’s lucky to be alive,” the fire chief said.

Having on his gear, and just his youth, probably help him escape more serious injury, Temple commented. It was a high-angle technical rope rescue and they were lucky the Frenchtown Department had brought their equipment as well as their Advanced Life Support (ALS) vehicle, all of which helped save Rauch, who suffered from a broken femur in two places.

Rauch had just received his National Firefighters Certification a few days prior to the wreck. On Dec. 14, the Frenchtown Fire Department had their annual holiday banquet and he was presented the certificate. Calnan said he is in their resident program, and had graduated from the Fire Fighter One Academy last year.

At the crash scene, Montana Rail Link had shut down the tracks as crews used the same equipment that rescued Rauch to remove Veresko’s body once survivors were treated. Meanwhile, the sun finally peeked over the mountains, and the full extent of the crash came into view and morning traffic started to increase.

Some vehicles sat for up to five hours before being redirected around the crash scene. Some semi drivers even unhooked their loads and left them on the side of the road in order to turn around. Traffic in the eastbound lane was diverted back to Lozeau where vehicles turned and went back to Superior. They then were directed to the East Mullan Frontage Road, which took them around the crash site to the Tarkio exit. Westbound traffic was also diverted onto Tarkio until one lane of traffic was opened around noon.

County commissioner Laurie Johnson, who is also a member of the Mineral County Local Emergency Planning Committee, received a call around 7 a.m. asking if she should help direct traffic at Lozeau. She said some of the drivers had used their GPS’s, which directed them to take the Quartz road through Rivulet. Luckily, her husband, Kelly, was sanding roads in the area and redirected them back to Mullan Road.

“Otherwise, there would have been some serious accidents as that road is a narrow, winding, steep forest service road,” she commented.

Some traffic even ended up on Diamond Road, sending them up Trout Creek near Superior and another person had to be put there to help redirect traffic. By midnight, the eastbound lanes were reopened.

THOUGH NO hazardous material was reported from the truck’s cargo, 50- to 100-gallon fuel tanks were ripped from the trucks and strewn across the highway — some of which dripped onto the railroad tracks, as well. The only truck with a trailer broken open was one filled with old car batteries, Temple reported. Luckily, none of them ruptured or caused a fire.

Some of trucks were hauled to Missoula and others to the west end.

The irony in the situation, said Temple, was that just the day before, he and Disaster and Emergency Services Coordinator Lori Dove had been working on a mass emergency plan. The plan was to create a mock chemical spill and engage Mineral County Emergency crews in an emergency scenario planned for May 11, 2019. The scenario would include a total freeway closure and how crews would handle the incident.

“What’s creepy,” said Temple, “is we picked that exact area for our full-scale exercise.”

The area was picked because it is one of the most constrained stretches on I-90. “It’s narrow and if there was a toxic spill, how would be handle it? People would be stuck on the freeway and exposed to leaking chemicals.”

“We got some real-life preparation,” said Dove, “and we can take what we learned from this incident and apply it to our exercise next spring.”

All of the emergency responders interviewed said this was one of the worst incidents they had ever handled.