Details on I-90 shutdown released

By BRIAN WALKER

Staff Writer

POST FALLS — Idaho State Police on Saturday afternoon released details of Friday night's crash of a semi transporting 16 missiles that shut down travel in both directions of Interstate 90 for two and a half hours.

There were no injuries during the incident at the eastbound Huetter rest stop between Post Falls and Coeur d'Alene.

The interstate shutdown was due to the need of having a bomb squad from Fairchild Air Force Base examine the load to ensure it remained secure and was not a threat.

"It was a hazardous materials load and neither the trooper nor the driver could see under the tarps if there was any damaged components or a load shift," ISP Sgt. Alan Ashby said. "We treated it as a hazardous materials situation and the logical shutoff points were exits 7 (Rathdrum/Spirit Lake) and 11 (Northwest Boulevard)."

Mark Dearinger, 48, of Chickasha, Okla., the driver of the green 2017 Volvo semi owned by Baggett Transportation of Bloomfield, Ill., was cited for misdemeanor inattentive driving. Leiloni Dearinger, 56, of Chickasha, was the female passenger and also not injured.

"The driver thought he was entering the on ramp, but entered a hazardous materials containment area while accelerating and the truck became high-centered on a snow berm," Ashby said, adding that the truck had to be pulled from the berm and towed from the scene due to the damage.

Ashby described the "old bombs" on the flatbed trailer as being about 15 feet long and 2,000 pounds each.

“The shells and explosives were there but not the components to make them go ‘boom,’” Ashby said. “Still, under the conditions, it had to be treated as a hazardous load and precautions needed to be taken until we knew what was going on. Obviously, we did not want that load to catch on fire.”

ISP Capt. John Kempf added: "We treated it as we would with any hazardous material until we knew the situation was safe."

Kempf said it was fortunate that the Fairchild crew was able to respond as fast as it did on a Friday night.

The shells had not shifted during the crash and neither the load nor the trailer were damaged.

Ashby said it was originally planned that the Department of Defense would issue a press release on the incident, but when that didn't occur ISP released information on Saturday afternoon in response to inquires from The Press.

Both directions of Interstate 90 were closed from 7:19 to 9:49 p.m. during the investigation. Seltice Way was used as a detour.

The Kootenai County Sheriff's Office also assisted with the incident.