One Killed and One Hurt in Two Crashes on One Idaho Road

Once again, no seatbelt.  A 19-year-old from Downey, Idaho, died in a crash in Bannock County.  Idaho State Police say he wasn’t wearing a seatbelt.  The teenager was driving a 2011 F-350 on Interstate 15, north of Inkom.  Ahead was a southbound tractor-trailer rig.  Troopers explained the driver of the rig was a 67-year-old man from Park City, Utah.  The pickup truck rear-ended the larger truck, and both vehicles ended up stopped in the right lane of the southbound section of the highway.  Southbound traffic was blocked for four hours in the right-hand lane.  The crash happened just after 5:30 on Thursday night.

Troopers Don't Yet Know Why It Happened

State Police are still looking for a cause.  The accident report doesn’t list a condition for the older driver.  The Bannock County Sheriff’s Office, Bannock County Search and Rescue, and Pocatello EMS joined troopers at the scene.

It probably doesn’t need repeating, but research shows wearing a seatbelt greatly increases your chance of surviving a crash and significantly reduces the odds of serious injury.  The research is backed up by clicking here.  A State Police Lieutenant once told me he responded to a deadly crash in a parking lot, where even at low impact, a driver without a seatbelt was killed.

State Police had Just Cleared Another Crash Scene

Troopers had a very unusual accident just a few hours before on the same highway, when a driver on I-15 was struck in the face by a receiver hitch that came through the windshield.  The driver had to be hospitalized.