Winter storm wreaks havoc

Those who convinced themselves of smooth travels and smoother roads this Christmas season got a rude awakening Thursday morning with two unmistakable reminders:

1. This is December.

2. This is North Idaho.

First responders from agencies across the region responded to dozens of cars accidents or incidents before 2 p.m., ranging from harmless slide-offs to unfortunate fender-benders to lane-blocking calamities — almost all due, in some form or fashion, to the weather.

“It’s been a [mess],” Sgt. Sean Lind of the Idaho State Police said. “We’ve been running pretty much non-stop since this morning.”

In Bonner County, an Oldtown resident was injured when a driver lost control of his Penske truck and slid into the man’s 2007 GMC pickup.

Idaho State Police said Joshua R. Horn, 23, of Spokane, Wash., was eastbound on Highway 2 in the 20000 block between Laclede and Sandpoint when he lost control of the 2014 Penske truck while trying to brake for traffic. Horn’s vehicle then slid left of center into a pickup driven by Glenn G. Davis, 72 of Oldtown.

Davis was transported to Bonner General. Horn was uninjured. All drivers were wearing seatbelt, Idaho State Police said in the press release. An investigation is ongoing.

ISP responded to a pair of Interstate 90 accidents around 7 a.m. Thursday, the first after a car hit the freeway barrier just west of the Northwest Boulevard exit, and the second on Fourth of July Pass after a semi jack-knifed, losing its hood and blocking the westbound lanes. While these two were the first noteworthy accidents of the morning, they were by no means the last.

Lind said troopers responded to a collision between an elderly gentleman’s car and a logging truck near milepost 419 on U.S. 95, south of Coeur d’Alene. The car driver was transported to Kootenai Health. His condition was unknown as of press time.

“He was in pretty rough shape,” Lind said. “The guy was just in the wrong lane when he hit. Weather was a factor. Fatigue was a factor. It was just a sideswipe; I think a younger man might have walked away OK, but he was hurt pretty bad.”

Two crashes — the semi incident and another crash west of Fernan Lake Village — blocked traffic on I-90 for intermittent periods, and a third crash on Fourth of July Pass kept ISP troopers occupied during the winter storm. Troopers also responded to multiple crashes on Highways 41 and 54, including a pair of incidents where one driver was cited for causing two separate wrecks.

“There wasn’t really much slush,” Lind said of the conditions surrounding the 11 incidents ISP responded to. “Just compact snow and a little ice. The real problem is, people are just driving too fast for the conditions.”

While social media warriors were quick to blame California drivers for accidents and congestion in North Idaho, law enforcement personnel said there was plenty of blame to go around Thursday.

“Typically what happens is, you have a group of people who are used to driving in the snow,” Capt. Lee Brainard of the Coeur d’Alene Police Department said. “And you have people who don’t change their driving habits because they’re so accustomed to driving in the snow.”

Lind agreed.

“A lot of people become complacent,” he said. “After the first five or 10 minutes, they say, ‘I can pick up the pace another five miles per hour.’ Then another five. Then another five after that. Pretty soon, they’re driving the speed limit, which is unsafe for these winter conditions.

“On top of that, they’re driving SUVs or four-wheel drive [vehicles], which isn’t a bad thing, but they become too confident. It’s just complacency.”

Brainard said the Coeur d’Alene Police Department wouldn’t have responded to as many accidents Thursday morning — 15 before 1 p.m. — had drivers simply exercised better judgment.

“Just slow down,” he urged. “Use standard driving procedures. Increase braking distances. Increase your following distances. Build in more time for your commute. These are just simple precautions everyone can practice.”

Of those 15 incidents, only one resulted in injury. A female was treated on the scene on Dalton Avenue but was not transported for further evaluation. More incidents were expected by all agencies throughout the afternoon, though Brainard expected the rate of incidents to bottom out until the evening.

“We’ve had weather today where it’s snowing one minute, then raining the next,” he said. “The cold weather is thawing a little bit; the temperatures are going up, which is creating slush. It’s warming up enough now that the roads will still be slick and wet until the temperature drops again this evening.”

Officer Pat Eismann of the Post Falls Police Department said only seven weather-related traffic incidents occurred Thursday morning, more than half of which he described as unreportable. Unreportable incidents include single-vehicle non-injury accidents in which the vehicle is usually still operational. Slide-offs are common unreportable accidents that often occur without citation or the need for follow-up.

Lt. Ryan Higgins of the Kootenai County Sheriff’s Office said deputies responded to only six accidents as of noon Thursday, and that KCSO’s real concerns heading into the holiday weekend surround drivers dealing with more than just icy roads.

“This weekend, we’ll be stepping up DUI patrols,” he said. “In partnership with a regional task force focused on DUIs and aggressive driving, we’ll be looking to make sure drivers stay safe and drive responsibly. The weather makes winter driving challenging enough; impaired driving — which has been getting better — can obviously increase the chances of accidents. Plus, people tend to speed more, people are just in a rush. On top of that, it’s a very busy weekend for driving: There are just more people on the roads. It’s important people just take their time and slow down.”

Lind added that winter driving caution requires more than just adherence to safer speeds, using jack-knifed rigs as an example where drivers need to think ahead.

“Most people drive for the moment,” he said. “They’re not thinking ahead. If you’re driving next to this big semi, what happens if it suddenly turns sideways? Nobody thinks like that, and that’s something you have to do: Think ahead. As police officers, we have to drive like we’re chess players. You need to always be considering a what-if scenario. You need to always look for an exit strategy. If people don’t have a plan, they freeze up like a deer in the headlights.”

Ultimately, though, all four first responders went back to the same lesson to describe Thursday’s hazards: speed.

“Sloooooow dooooooown,” Lind urged. “That’s the rule of the day. If the temperature is at or below freezing, you need to slow down. If you can’t see the road markings, you need to slow down. If you can’t see the painted lanes on the highway, you really need to drastically slow down. Just exercise some caution and some patience, and you’ll get where you need to go, safe and sound.”