Woman dies in snowmobile crash

A Washington woman succumbed to fatal

injuries early Monday morning that she suffered in a snowmobile

accident in the remote northwest corner of Lincoln County, a

law-enforcement official reported.

Ronda Jo Emerson, 41, of Newman Lake,

Wash., was recreating with her husband and a group of friends

Sunday afternoon in the Spread Creek drainage near Lake Florence

when the accident occurred. While traveling down a steep hill,

Emerson’s snowmobile crashed into a tree at about 1:30 p.m.,

officials said.

“We speculate that the snow was so

powdery that it came up over her windshield and blinded her so she

couldn’t see,” Lincoln County Sheriff Roby Bowe said.

Emerson was ejected and then pinned

between the tree and snowmobile, Bowe said. The group stayed with

her at the accident site while her husband travelled 13 miles by

snowmobile to the trailhead and then drove a vehicle even further

to access a telephone.

A 911 call came into Troy dispatch at

about 3:50 p.m., almost 2-1/2 hours after the accident. David

Thompson Search and Rescue assembled teams, with the first

emergency personnel reaching Emerson at 5:52 p.m.

Emerson was treated at the scene of the

crash.

At around midnight, rescue crews began

transporting Emerson to the trailhead. They reached a waiting

ambulance just over two hours later.

“They tried to make her as comfortable

as possible, but she had serious injuries,” Bowe said.

She was taken to St. John’s Lutheran

Hospital in Libby, where she was pronounced dead, according to

Bowe.

Twenty-six responders aided in the

rescue effort, including Lincoln County Sheriff’s Office, David

Thompson Search and Rescue, Libby Volunteer Ambulance, Troy

Volunteer Ambulance, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and several

individual volunteers.