Van crash
ELMORE COUNTY -- A family heading to Salt Lake City for the holidays came to a tragic stop this morning, shortly after their trip began.
A rollover crash claimed the life of a 9-year-old girl and sent her 10-year-old brother to the hospital.
Elmore County Sheriff's Deputy Kevin Henslee says a blown tire is to blame.
It is a devastating way to start the holiday travel season.
The deadly accident happened about 60 miles east of Boise between Mountain Home and Glenns Ferry.
Deputies were called to the scene at around 10 a.m.
"My dispatch called me, and they asked me to come out to a single vehicle rollover with people ejected," said Henslee, "I saw the car in the condition that it is in now, there were two people laying outside the car, young people, and their grandmother who was very upset."
The young girl was thrown in the median, her brother in the middle of the interstate.
"The little boy was ejected into the lane of travel. The girl was ejected over here on the side behind the car. When her brother, stopped rolling, he got up and crawled to his sister," said Henslee.
Some passing motorists stopped to help, but their efforts could not save the girl. The boy was taken by air ambulance to a local hospital. His condition has not been released.
Henslee said the minivan was heading east when the rear passenger-side tire exploded. The driver, the children's grandfather, lost control and the vehicle rolled.
"They came off the road, some 100 feet or so, this way. And they rolled across the median, the car spun around and rolled over on itself and landed here. And that whiplash action is what ejects the kids out of the car," said Henslee.
The children were in the backseat, watching movies, and their grandparents tell deputies they were buckled in when they left town, but they have tendencies to unbuckle to get comfortable on long trips.
"Please just check your kids. OK, check in the mirror and look at them and make sure they are belted in. Make sure they are not watching movies sideways in the seat belt with their feet up. It's important that you stay where you are supposed to be in the car or things like this can happen and we don't want to see any more of that," said Henslee.
The grandparents are the children's legal guardians.
