Updated on: 11/22/2019
A car vs. semi truck collision shut down Highway 395 through Chewelah for several hours Monday.
The incident happened around 5 p.m. in front of Akers United Drug and Safeway.
A driver in a sedan apparently became distracted by a dog in the car, swerving into the wrong lane. An approaching semi truck slowed to nearly a full stop before the sedan slammed into it.
The jaws of life had to be used to extricate one person from the passenger side of the sedan. Three people were in the car — two adults and one child. One person was flown to Spokane with non-life-threatening injuries.
The driver had a suspended licence and was on federal probation awaiting prison.
Washington State Patrol will do a full commercial investigation of the accident. Further details are unknown at this time.
Washington State Patrol’s Commercial Vehicle Division
The State Patrol’s Commercial Vehicle Enforcement Officers (CVEO) are in place to combat unsafe driving behaviors by both truck and car drivers.
Commercial vehicle officers are on the lookout for unsafe driving behaviors such as speeding, distracted driving, aggressive driving, failing to use a seatbelt, traveling too closely, improper lane change and failure to obey traffic control devices.
CVEOs also investigate truck crashes. They may look at driver fatigue, falsified logbooks, improper maintenance, unsecured loads, and countless other factors in a crash.
