Sandpoint, ID: Two dead in head-on collision on U.S. 95 on Friday, July 24th 2015

Two people were killed in a head-on collision with a dump truck on U.S. Highway 95 on Friday.Idaho State Police said Yun Zhou was driving southbound in a Ford Focus when she attempted to pass a tractor-trailer, which was also southbound. Jennifer R. Bowlby was northbound and swerved the Chrysler Town & Country minivan she was driving to avoid a collision.Zhou continued driving southbound in the northbound lane and crashed head-on into a Kenworth dump truck driven by Harley L. Lippert. The dump truck then slid into Bowlby's minivan, state police said.The vehicles came to rest on the east shoulder of the highway."This was really bad," said Bonner EMS spokesman Bob Abbott.Two passengers in Zhou's compact, Ling Yuan and Jianxue Zhou, were both evacuated by Life Flight Network helicopters. Yuan, 50, was flown to Kootenai Health, where she was pronounced dead. Yuan was wearing a seat belt, according to ISP.Jianxue Zhou, 52, was flown to Providence Sacred Heart Medical Center, where he succumbed to his injuries, state police said. He was not wearing a seat belt.Yun Zhou, a 27-year-old from Seattle, was taken to Bonner General Health and later transferred to Kootenai Health. Her condition was not immediately available. State police said she was wearing her seat belt.Bowlby, a 28-year-old from Bonners Ferry, was wearing a seat belt and escaped injury, as did her passenger, Michelle L. Brooks, a 39-year-old from Naples. Bowlby's minivan was also carrying five juveniles, all of whom were wearing seat belts or strapped into car seats and also escaped injury, according to ISP.Lippert, a 39-year-old Sandpoint resident, was not injured in the collision. State police said it was unclear if Lippert was wearing a seat belt.The crashes occurred north of Woods V Bar X ranch around 12:26 p.m. The highway was completely blocked for about two hours and was reopened to one lane of alternating traffic thereafter.Both lanes of the highway reopened around 7 p.m.The crashes occurred a short distance north of where the highway widens to four lanes for north- and southbound traffic.Eight people have died so far this year in motor vehicle crashes in Bonner County, according to archived ISP news releases. Three of the fatalities, which include Friday's crashes, occurred on U.S. 95.

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Two dead in head-on collision on U.S. 95