Car crash kills one and injures five

PLAINS - A 65-year-old Wenatchee, Wash., man died Wednesday in a one-vehicle rollover accident north of Plains. Four of his teammates, part of an auto-racing team, were injured in the accident.

Frank Brant, driver of the vehicle, was killed when the right front tire apparently blew on his black 1992 Chevy truck on highway 28 about nine miles north of Plains, according to Montana Highway Patrol Officer Tony Cox. The truck, which was towing a late-model race car, veered off the right side of the road down a steep embankment, Cox said. The accident was reported at 6:22 p.m.

According to Cox, four of the team members including the race car driver Christian Roeder, 39, Teresa Valson, 36, and Feliz Morgan, 32, were sent to the Clark Fork Valley Hospital in Plains for medical attention. Brandt, 65, and Erickson Butler, 36, we're life-flighted to St. Patrick Hospital in Missoula because of their serious injuries.

Cox said that when the truck drove off the side of embankment Butler and Valson were ejected from the vehicle. He said that speed wasn't a factor in the accident and that all the passengers inside the truck had their seat belts on with the exception of Butler and Valson who were in a canopied box in the back of the truck.

Pat Pierre, 79, who lives a mile from where the accident took place said that it took emergency crews only about 30 minutes to get to the accident. “We drove by and went pretty slow and we saw the truck upside down with its wheels in the air and the trailer was on its side,” Pierre said.

George Humeston, a Plains EMT, said that two ambulances from Plains were sent to the accident to help transport the victims and said he also saw two other ambulances he believed to be from Hot Springs. “It was well-organized and well set up, the doctors were there when we arrived, they handled the situation perfectly,” Humeston said.

Towing crews worked until midnight Wednesday and all day Thursday to extract the Brandt's truck and lift the 32-foot trailer and late-model car inside, out of the embankment.

The team, named the Brandt Racing Team, was driving to Kalispell from Wenatchee, Wash., where they would have been competing at the 18th Annual Coors Light Montana 200, a NASCAR type race for super late model cars. Justin Rody, manager and promoter for Montana Raceway Park in Kalispell said that they have already decided to dedicate the popular race to Frank Brandt. “He was a great guy and a great team owner, I hope that the team will be able to get back on the horse and continue racing,” Rody said.

Many of the team's sponsors are deeply saddened by the news of Brandt's death and voiced their admiration. “Franks been a stock car nut as long as I can remember, he was always into stock car racing, he was a very fierce competitor, a guy who was willing to help anyone else. We're not only going to lose a great guy, but also a great competitor,” Eddie May said, owner of Avenue Auto Sales in Wenatchee.

“It's a sad day I'm telling you, he's just a good guy, and it was a shame that something like this had to take him away like this. I want everybody to know that he was a good guy,” Tom Finch, the owner of Valley Machine in Wenatchee and Brandt Racing Team's engine sponsor said. “It just leaves a great whole in our racing society,” Finch said.

Though Cox said speed was not a factor in the accident, Linda Solomakos, Pierre's wife, thought that there should be signs on the road warning drivers of the dangerous conditions on highway 28. “If they aren't going to lower the speed limit, they should at least post some signs that warn drivers,” Solomakos said. “It's ridiculous, just because there aren't many people up here isn't good enough reason not to put some signs here.”

Pierre, whose lived in the area all of his life said that the road has been dangerous ever since it was paved back in the 1950s.