Ketchum, ID : Woman in critical condition following Highway 75 crash on Thursday, September 14, 2017

A 21-year-old Wood River Valley woman was in critical condition at Saint Alphonsus Regional Medical Center in Boise on Thursday after a head-on collision on state Highway 75 the previous morning.

The highway was briefly closed in both directions around 9:30 a.m. Wednesday after the two-vehicle crash about one mile north of Zinc Spur Road, north of Hailey.

According to Wood River Fire & Rescue Chief Bart Lassman, crews were dispatched at 9:21 a.m. to reports of a multi-vehicle accident at Highway 75 and East Fork Road, but personnel from Ketchum’s Greenhorn station—the first to reach that location—found no accident. Crews traveling north from Hailey found the accident on the highway between Zinc Spur Road and Ohio Gulch, he said.

According to a news release from the Blaine County Sheriff’s Office, a southbound four-door Honda Accord sedan driven by Wood River Valley resident Lindi D. Mattinson, 21, travelled off the edge of the southbound shoulder. Mattinson overcorrected and the Accord crossed the highway, traveling into the path of a northbound 2001 Ford F-350 landscaping pickup truck towing a backhoe on a trailer driven by Eberto B. Zavala, 47, of Hailey.

The truck collided with the sedan in what Lassman called an “offset head-on collision,” and, according to the release, “[t]he force of the collision tore the front of Mattinson’s vehicle off and it became lodged against the front of the Ford F350 truck.”

Photos of the crash scene showed the front portion of the Accord embedded in the front end of the truck on the east side of the road, while the remainder of the Accord was farther south on the road’s east side. The sedan was split at the front seats. The release said the crash is still under investigation.

Zavala was transported to St. Luke’s Wood River hospital for observation, Lassman said, and the news release stated that he was released with minor injuries.

However, Lassman said Mattinson had “severe lower body trauma and head trauma,” including “severe lower leg injuries.” He said he could not comment on specific patient injuries, qualifying the injuries only as requiring treatment at a Level 1 trauma center.

“We had multiple EMTs and paramedics working on her, doing the best they could,” he said.

Mattinson was transported by ground to St. Luke’s, where an air ambulance was waiting, Lassman said, and the release stated that she was then flown to Saint Alphonsus in Boise, where she remained in critical condition Thursday.

Lassman said all four lanes of travel on Highway 75 were closed immediately after the accident, but one southbound lane reopened shortly thereafter. During that time, northbound traffic was routed through the Valley Club subdivision. All lanes were reopened as of 12:30 p.m.

Source :
Woman in critical condition following Highway 75 crash