Focus tightens in deadly crash

SANDPOINT — Over-correction and excessive speed are identified as contributing circumstances in a chaotic pileup on U.S. Highway 95 that killed one motorist and injured two others.

Those details from the Jan. 21 crash emerged in an Idaho State Police vehicle collision report obtained by The Daily Bee under the state’s public records law.

The report indicates Zachary Henager was southbound on the slush-coated highway when he lost control and crossed into the northbound lane. The Mazda MX-6 he was driving crashed head-on into a Mack tractor-trailer pulling an empty flatbed trailer.

The Mack truck then collided head-on with a southbound Freightliner driven by James Mady, a 49-year-old from Creswell, Ore., The Freightliner, which was pulling a soft-sided trailer containing peat moss, overturned, broke apart and struck Henager’s coupe.

Mady was fatally injured and Henager was seriously injured, as was the driver of the Mack, Richard Walston, 58, of Colville, Wash.

As that series of collisions unfolded, a southbound Peterbilt hauling an empty fuel tank and a northbound Volvo tractor-trailer sideswiped one another while attempting to avoid the snarl of wreckage they were bearing down on. Neither of those drivers were injured, according to ISP.

The sequence of crashes happened shortly after 8:40 a.m. at Cocolalla Creek, about 13 miles south of Sandpoint. The highway was blocked for 11 hours.

Contributing factors in Henager’s role in the crash are listed as driving too fast for road conditions and over-correcting, the crash report said. Distraction by a mobile device or obstructed view have been ruled out as factors.

It remains unclear if Henager, a 23-year-old from Sandpoint, will be charged with an offense. Blood samples were taken from Henager and Mady, although the test results for intoxicants are still pending, the report said.

None of the other motorists involved in the pileup were cited, according to the report.