A tractor-trailer that slowed as it traveled through a cloud of smoke from a controlled burn near the highway led to a chain-reaction crash on Interstate 15 near Conrad May 3, killing two young women from Columbia Falls.
A chain reaction series of crashes began when a tractor trailer slowed to 25 mph as it entered the smoke according to the Montana Highway Patrol (MHP). A second tractor trailer plowed into the first, then a sedan with the two women hit the second truck and a fourth vehicle, a sedan, hit the vehicle with the two women, who died at the scene. Four people in the fourth vehicle were injured.
The crash occurred at approximately 1:15 p.m. on I-15 at mile marker 344, about five miles north of Conrad, 0.78 mile south of Ledger Road (MT 366).
During a 2:54 p.m. MDT overflight on the day of the crash a satellite detected heat from a fire just west of the location of the crash reported by the MHP. According to Google Earth imagery virtually everything within a mile of the site, other than roads, is agricultural fields, including the location of the detected fire. It appears likely that the controlled burn was from agricultural or debris burning, rather than a prescribed burn used by land managers to reduce hazardous fuels or restore fire to a fire dependent ecosystem.
Thanks and a tip of the hat go out to Dick.
Another win for “Controlled Burning”. It still smells like fire-industrial complex is winning just like to tobacco company game plan.
“…It appears likely that the controlled burn was from agricultural or debris burning, rather than a prescribed burn used by land managers to reduce hazardous fuels or restore fire to a fire dependent ecosystem…”
Martha, as the article says, it appears it was a private controlled burn, from agricultural or debris burning, not a USFS, BLM, State division of Forestry, prescribed burn.
If it was a government agency managing this prescribed fire, there were be flagging signs, advance published notices, and monitoring of the weather to indicate whether it was a weather worthy day safe for a prescribed burn.
The driver of the 4th vehicle might could well face a couple of vehicular homicide charges.
The ONLY time we should be allowed to over-drive our sight distance is if we are qualified, licensed and equipped for flying on instruments. VFR should apply to ground travelers too. Even a bat knows better than to go flying blind.
Wow, this is hideous. It was a non-public entity, it looks like, not a public lands administrative agency that did the burn. Public lands agencies consider the effects of smoke on visibility and plan carefully — including NOT performing such burns when conditions indicate. Yet this is hideous.