16-year-old killed on icy Kootenai bridge

A 16-year-old Troy girl was killed Tuesday afternoon in a traffic accident on the Kootenai River Bridge on U.S. Highway 2 west of Troy.

According to information released by the Montana Highway Patrol, Jamie Leigh Lanham was driving her 1988 Chevrolet passenger car west when she lost control of the vehicle on the extremely icy road surface entering the bridge. After fishtailing several times, her vehicle slid broadside into a eastbound 1997 Ford pickup truck driven by Joshua Harold Cole, 23, also from Troy.

Both subjects were transported from the scene by ambulance. Neither driver was wearing a seatbelt at the time of the crash. According to the Highway Patrol, contributing factors were the icy road surface and speeds too fast for the existing road conditions.