Three hospitalized after crash

BOISE -- Tragedy strikes Centennial High School's cross-country team.

A head on accident along Highway 55 Tuesday leaves one athlete dead and lands two others and the coach in the hospital.

It happened near the Avimor development on Highway 55 around 11:30 a.m.

Police say the three-vehicle crash appears to have been weather-related.

Steven Thompson, 17, of Boise, died in a car crash on Highway 55 Tuesday morning.

Glenn Mabey, 42, is at St. Alphonsus Regional Medical Center in Boise in critical condition. He’s a cross-country and track coach at Centennial High.

Two of his athletes, Michael Dobkins, 17, and Austin Stalling, 18, were also taken to the hospital.

Dobkins was treated and released, but Stallings is still hospitalized in stable condition.

Their fellow teammate 17-year-old Steven Thompson of Boise did not survive the crash.

It’s a collision described as violent.

Idaho State Police say weather conditions likely caused 38-year-old Ryan Howard of Texas to veer his Dodge Durango into oncoming traffic.

Howard was pulling a trailer and traveling southbound on Highway 55.

ISP troopers say preliminary indications show the trailer Howard was pulling jackknifed out of control as Howard was entering a corner before he crossed the centerline and hit a silver Subaru head-on.

Mabey was driving the Subaru with three of his athletes in the car. They were on their way to an annual cross-country team event.

"It’s a retreat where they go up to the Stanley Basin, they'll camp out and they go for runs that kind of thing," said Eric Exline, Meridian School District spokesman.

Mabey, along with Dobkins and Stalling, survived the crash and were taken to the hospital.

Glenn Mabey is the cross-country coach at Centennial High School.

But 17-year-old Steven Thompson who was sitting in the back seat of Mabey's car, died on the scene of that accident.

Exline says the news spread fast across the Centennial High community and he says the school is already taking steps to help students and teachers cope.

"The school is calling all their staff members to let them know firsthand what happened, and they did bring some counselors in to talk to the students who were on staff, and they kind of set up the opportunity at the school to get updates I think in large part to decrease the number of people that were at the hospital," said Exline.

Along with coaching, Mabey has been an earth science and geology teacher for years at Centennial High School.

In the meantime, Idaho State Police say at this time no citations have been issued.