Email this story Printer friendly version
Accident on icy road claims two infant lives
Posted: Monday, Nov 15, 2004 - 11.59:26 pm PST
By R.J. COHN
Hagadone News Network
Mother escapes car, but children drown in Spring Creek
SANDPOINT -- An accident that claimed the lives of two Washington state infants Saturday was called "a nightmare out of hell" by an Idaho State Police trooper who later arrived on the scene.
Bethany S. Ashmoore, 28, of Fairfield, Wash., was treated and released from Bonner General Hospital after her 1998 Subaru Legacy failed to negotiate a slick corner on Spring Creek Road, about 1.7 miles above the Clark Fork Fish Hatchery, around 5 p.m.
Both her sons, an 8-month infant and a 2-year-old, who had been in child car seats when Ashmoore's vehicle overturned in Spring Creek, were pronounced dead at BGH.
Ashmoore's Subaru, which was traveling south, went off the left side of the road, slid down a small embankment and overturned into Spring Creek, according to ISP. The passenger compartment was submerged in three to four feet of water.
ISP Cpl. Brian Zimmerman said the corner on Spring Creek Road was covered with a thin layer of frost and was more like "hard-packed clay that was as smooth as cement."
"You don't see many dirt roads around like this anymore," he said.
Zimmerman said the road had not yet been sanded by the county.
"You wouldn't think that it would have been necessary at that time of the day," he added. "This was just a terrible tragedy."
Zimmerman speculated that Ashmoore, who managed to get out of the overturned car that was filling with water, struggled to unfasten the buckles of her children's car seats but was unable to open them.
"When your vehicle is upside down and it is quickly starting to be filled up with water, you're totally disoriented and you panic," he said. "This must have been a nightmare out of hell."
ISP is continuing its investigation.
__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
People just don't know how to slow down.
Plus we have another one missing in Lake Pend Oreille on the south end. We have his boat and that's it.
Nasty year
Gary D.
Accident on icy road claims two infant lives
Posted: Monday, Nov 15, 2004 - 11.59:26 pm PST
By R.J. COHN
Hagadone News Network
Mother escapes car, but children drown in Spring Creek
SANDPOINT -- An accident that claimed the lives of two Washington state infants Saturday was called "a nightmare out of hell" by an Idaho State Police trooper who later arrived on the scene.
Bethany S. Ashmoore, 28, of Fairfield, Wash., was treated and released from Bonner General Hospital after her 1998 Subaru Legacy failed to negotiate a slick corner on Spring Creek Road, about 1.7 miles above the Clark Fork Fish Hatchery, around 5 p.m.
Both her sons, an 8-month infant and a 2-year-old, who had been in child car seats when Ashmoore's vehicle overturned in Spring Creek, were pronounced dead at BGH.
Ashmoore's Subaru, which was traveling south, went off the left side of the road, slid down a small embankment and overturned into Spring Creek, according to ISP. The passenger compartment was submerged in three to four feet of water.
ISP Cpl. Brian Zimmerman said the corner on Spring Creek Road was covered with a thin layer of frost and was more like "hard-packed clay that was as smooth as cement."
"You don't see many dirt roads around like this anymore," he said.
Zimmerman said the road had not yet been sanded by the county.
"You wouldn't think that it would have been necessary at that time of the day," he added. "This was just a terrible tragedy."
Zimmerman speculated that Ashmoore, who managed to get out of the overturned car that was filling with water, struggled to unfasten the buckles of her children's car seats but was unable to open them.
"When your vehicle is upside down and it is quickly starting to be filled up with water, you're totally disoriented and you panic," he said. "This must have been a nightmare out of hell."
ISP is continuing its investigation.
__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
People just don't know how to slow down.
Plus we have another one missing in Lake Pend Oreille on the south end. We have his boat and that's it.
Nasty year
Gary D.