Nampa driver hospitalized after collision on I-84 during dust storm

A 49-year-old Nampa driver was injured in a rollover crash on Interstate 84 Tuesday night, after he stopped his compact car on the highway due to low visibility caused by a dust storm and was rear-ended by a semi truck.

Mikel Snelling was taken by ground ambulance to St. Luke’s Nampa Medical Center. Investigators didn’t know if he was wearing his seatbelt at the time of the collision.

The crash occurred just before 7 p.m. close to milepost 31 near Caldwell.

Outflows from thunderstorms in the Owyhees created wind gusts of up to 45 miles per hour in Boise just before 7 p.m. — and haze from dust reduced visibility to less than 2 miles, according to a National Weather Service meteorologist. Wind gusts were recorded at 24 mph in Caldwell and 35 mph in Mountain Home.

Idaho State Police investigators say Snelling was driving a 2006 Kia Spectra east on the highway.

Jesse Branson, a 37-year-old Las Vegas driver, was traveling east in a 2004 Freightliner. Branson’s truck collided with Snelling’s car, causing the car to roll off the right shoulder of the highway.

Another truck, driven by 61-year-old Randy Davis of Centralia, Washington, struck the Branson’s trailer.

Both Branson and Davis were wearing seatbelts.

The right lane of travel on the highway was blocked for four hours.

No information was immediately available on whether any of the drivers were cited.

This story was originally published May 31, 2017 at 9:06 AM with the headline "Nampa driver hospitalized after collision on I-84 during dust storm."