A 13-year-old from Superior was airlifted from eastern Idaho to The Children’s Hospital in Aurora today, a day after his family’s vacation was ended by a horrific interstate crash.
Ryan Chen, a student at Eldorado Middle School, is in critical condition and has not regained consciousness since a semi-tractor trailer crashed into the family’s travel-trailer and minivan on Interstate 15 near Shelley, Idaho, at about 2:20 p.m. Tuesday.
His parents and three younger siblings were relatively uninjured.
The family was on its way home from a vacation to Yellowstone National Park, said Mary Chen, 44, reached by cellphone this afternoon.
She and her husband, David, 42, were outside the minivan on the shoulder of the interstate changing a flat tire when the crash occurred, she said. The four children still were inside.
“I looked up and saw this semi crossing the line and coming at us,” she said. “It took us out.”
The camper was “reduced to splinters” and the “driver’s side of the van is missing.”
The truck, hauling grain, then ran off the interstate and rolled onto its top in a field. The driver, Teral Schaeffer, 47, of Idaho Falls, was not seriously injured, according to the Idaho State Police.
He has not been charged. A spokeswoman for the State Police said a decision on charges would be made pending the outcome of an accident-scene investigation.
Ryan Chen was rushed to Eastern Idaho Regional Medical Center in critical condition before being airlifted to Aurora today.
Joey Bunch: 303-954-1174 or jbunch@denverpost.com
