Collision kills Lakeside woman

The Daily Inter Lake

A 69-year-old Lakeside woman died in a head-on crash Wednesday night on U.S. 93 south of Kalispell.

Flathead County Deputy Coroner Pete Wingert is waiting to release her name until family members have been notified.

The 34-year-old driver of the second vehicle underwent surgery at Kalispell Regional Medical Center for her injuries Thursday morning, according to police. Her identity also has not been released.

The woman who died in the 9:30 p.m. crash was driving a gray Jeep Cherokee. Both women were alone in their vehicles.

Kalispell police said the crash happened at the highway's intersection with Twin Acres Road. The driver of the Jeep, who police said was not wearing her seat belt, had been driving south on the inside northbound lane of U.S. 93.

A witness to the crash told Kalispell police officer Steve Hoover that the Jeep had turned southward out of Rosauer's parking lot. When turning, police Chief Roger Nasset said, the Jeep crossed the pavement into the northbound lane and remained there.

Nasset said the witness, who was driving alongside the Jeep, repeatedly tried get the woman's attention to move back into the southbound lanes but was unable to do so.

After about a half-mile of travel in that lane, the Jeep collided with an oncoming white Chevy Tahoe. The driver of the Tahoe was wearing her seat belt, Hoover reported, but sustained significant injuries.

The driver of the Jeep was pronounced dead at the scene.

Charges likely will not be filed, Nasset said.

The Montana Highway Patrol helped investigate the incident.

The death was the third on area highways in six days. Two women, one from Whitefish and the other from Ferndale, were killed in a crash Friday night, Feb. 23, on Montana 82 near Sportsman Bridge. Three days earlier, a Columbia Falls woman died in a one-vehicle wreck near St. Regis.