Head-on collision kills one

A Spokane woman who turned 21 earlier this month was killed Friday morning in a head-on collision on U.S. Highway 195 at Rosalia.

Stephanie Calvert’s compact Ford Focus was crushed when it collided at 7:25 a.m. with a Chevrolet Tahoe sport utility vehicle driven by Shelley R. Solberg, 52, of Colbert.

Calvert died at the scene, 35 miles south of Spokane. Solberg and two 14-year-old boys in her vehicle were taken to Sacred Heart Medical Center in Spokane with injuries that police said appeared to include broken bones and cuts.

Solberg was in satisfactory condition Friday afternoon, but the boys — including her son and a friend of his — were in serious condition in the pediatric intensive-care unit.

The Washington State Patrol did not identify the boys because they are minors.

Trooper Bruce Blood said Calvert was northbound when her car drifted into the southbound lane, almost to the fog line.

The southbound Solberg attempted to avoid the collision by steering toward the northbound lane, but Calvert made a sharp correction and the vehicles collided in the southbound lane, near the center of the road, Blood said.

He said both vehicles had been going about 60 mph, which is the speed limit, although a witness in a car behind Solberg’s said Solberg was braking when the vehicles hit almost squarely head-on.

There was no immediate indication that alcohol was involved, Blood said.

“It could have been a momentary lapse, and she just drifted over,” he said.