Collision south of Timmerman leaves 3 dead
Peruvian community shaken by tragic loss of members
This 1997 Buick Regal is hardly recognizable following a high-speed traffic accident last Friday on state Highway 75 south of Timmerman Hill. Three members of the Wood River Valley's Peruvian community were killed in the accident. Photo by David N. Seelig
The Wood River Valley's Peruvian community was shaken on Friday when three of its members were killed in a high-speed traffic accident on state Highway 75 south of Timmerman Hill, in southern Blaine County.
Blaine County authorities initially withheld releasing the victims' names to make sure family here and in Peru were first notified. The sheriff's office identified them Monday as 38-year-old Dionicio Crispin Yauri, 37-year-old Eliana Maribel Bodadilla Moya and 21-year-old Mariela Bernadino Melchor.
All three were employed as restaurant workers in the Ketchum area. They were close friends and neighbors who lived in the Blue Haven residential area south of Ketchum.
Five other people were injured in the three-vehicle collision Friday at about 12:40 p.m. in the rolling hills some four miles south of Timmerman Hill. The sheriff's office reported that precise speeds at the time of the collision were not known but were likely close to the area's speed limit of 65 miles per hour.
Sheriff's Lt. Jay Davis said it is not known who was driving the vehicle occupied by the three Peruvians. All were thrown from the car following the collision and died at the scene of the crash. He said none were wearing seatbelts, but the other five injured people had their belts buckled.
Davis described the accident sequence at a Monday morning press briefing. He said Yauri, Moya and Melchor, traveling north in a black 1997 Buick Regal, were attempting to pass a northbound white Dodge Sprinter flatbed truck driven by Keith Lott, a 32-year-old Twin Falls man. Apparently fearing oncoming traffic, the Buick Regal cut back into the northbound lane too quickly and clipped the front end of the Dodge truck.
Davis said Lott momentarily lost control of the truck and hit the Buick Regal again while trying to keep the truck on the road. That impact knocked the Buick into the southbound lane where it was struck nearly head-on by a silver 2008 GMC Denali driven by Bobby P. Roberts, 45, of Twin Falls.
He said Yauri, Moya and Melchor were ejected from the Buick by centrifugal force as the car spun from the impact.
The Buick caught on fire but flames were extinguished by people who stopped at the accident scene.
Emergency crews from Wood River Fire and Rescue, the Ketchum and Hailey fire departments and emergency helicopter services in Twin Falls and Pocatello rushed to the scene.
"It was pretty horrific," said Wood River Fire and Rescue Chief Bart Lassman.
He said crews were "very compassionate" in coordinating treatment and transport of the injured and in taking care of the deceased.
< <Traffic was closed on the highway for about two and half hours. It was rerouted to U.S. highways 20 and 93 while emergency crews cared for the injured and deceased and cleaned up the roadway.
The sheriff's office reported that of the five injured people, none of the injuries appear life-threatening. However, Roberts, a Jerome High School football coach, was transported by air ambulance to St. Luke's Magic Valley Medical Center in Twin Falls. He has since been released.
Two passengers in the Roberts vehicle, Wes Broadbent, 27, of Alpine, Utah, and Pascal Meyer, 37, of Sandy, Utah, were transported by ambulance to St. Luke's Wood River Medical Center. Both were later airlifted to Salt Lake City "so they could recover closer to home," the sheriff's office reported.
Lott, the driver of the Dodge truck, and a passenger, 31-year-old Donald Lott, of Twin Falls, were also transported to St. Luke's Wood River Medical Center.
The sheriff's office reported that the five men mainly suffered neck, back, abdominal and leg injuries.
Meanwhile, the bodies of Yauri, Moya and Melchor are being held at Wood River Chapel in Hailey while friends and family try to raise money to have them shipped back to Peru for burial.
There are about 200 Peruvians living as a tight-knit group in the Wood River Valley. Several of them contacted the Idaho Mountain Express following the accident to provide photographs and information about Yauri, Moya and Melchor.
One woman, who declined to have her name used, said Moya and Melchor had lived in the valley for about a year, while Yauri, who played soccer for the "Union Progreso" team, had lived here longer.
All were from the Lima area. Yauri and Moya leave behind spouses and children in Peru.
"They were neighbors and friends with each other," the woman said. "They had been down south and were returning to the valley to go to work.
"They were nice people and very hard workers—and they came here looking for the dream and they found something else."
To help victims' families
Friends of the three victims of an Oct. 30 fatal traffic accident in southern Blaine County have set up a fund at Wells Fargo Bank to raise money to transport the bodies back to their native Peru. Money can be deposited under the names of Dionicio Crispin Yauri, Eliana Maribel Bodadilla Moya and Mariela Bernadino Melchor. For more information, contact Wells Fargo in Ketchum at 578-3920 or Julissa Bobadilla at (602) 367-2519.
Terry Smith: tsmith@mtexpress.
com
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