North Idaho – February 8, 2017

A field amputation was necessary to remove the driver of a semi after a collision with a log hauler on a remote stretch of I-90 in north Idaho.

The incident happened just east of the 4th of July Pass in the west bound lanes of Interstate 90 near the Rose Lake interchange and on the Shoshone/Kootenai County line. There were multiple vehicles, mostly semi-tractor trailers, involved and the incident stretched over half a mile of the interstate.

Even with multiple vehicles, there were only two patients that required care and transport. One critically injured patient was immediately removed from the scene and transported by ground ambulance to Shoshone County Medical Center in Kellogg, Idaho — about 17 miles to the east.

The focus of rescuers became extricating the driver who was trapped in the sleeper cab of his semi-truck. It is still unclear what caused the patient’s rig to hit the back of a log truck carrying between 80,000 and 100,000 pounds of logs, but the impact forced the load of logs through the front cab of the truck, pushing the patient still in the driver’s seat to the back wall of the sleeper cab. Both of his legs were trapped under the dash board and weight of the logs that were resting on top.