News

Two serious accidents in the Turtle Mountains

By Bottineau Courant Staff

11/22/2011

Over this past week, three individuals from the Bottineau County area were fatalities in two separate vehicle accidents, which also left two other individuals from the area injured. 

Three individuals were involved in a one vehicle accident just northeast of Bottineau early Tuesday morning, which caused two fatalities and one injury.

Everett Davis, 28, of Souris, and Ethan Pottenger, 21, of Bottineau, were both killed in the accident, while Courtney Evenson, 19, of Minot was injured.

The accident occurred around 2:30 a.m. on a gravel road six miles northeast of Bottineau. Davis, who was driving a 1999 Chevrolet pickup, was traveling from Dunseith to Bottineau when he lost control of the truck, crossed over the road and entered the east side of the ditch. Upon entering the ditch, the truck overturned where the top of the pick up hit a tree and then rolled over and came to a rest on its tires facing northeast.

The individuals, who were in a remote area of the Turtle Mountains, were not found for close to six hours and were out in below freezing temperatures until emergency response teams were called to the scene, which was sometime after 8:30 a.m. on Tuesday morning.

Evenson was transported to St. Andrew’s Health Center, Bottineau,  and was then moved to Trinity Hospital in Minot.

At the time of the accident, none of the passengers in the vehicle were wearing seatbelts.

Pottenger graduated from Bottineau High School in 2008, while Davis graduated from Westhope High School in 2001.

On Wednesday afternoon, less than 14 hours after the first accident, Steven Evans, 20, of Dunseith, was fatality injured in a two car collision west of the International Peace Garden on a gravel road.

Evans, who was coming from a rural resident west of the Peace Garden in a 1993 Dodge Shadow, was eastbound going to another residence north of Dunseith. As he traveled down the road he was following behind a pickup that was kicking up snow on the road.

At the same time, Christopher Evans, 18, of Dunseith, was traveling westbound on the same road from Dunseith in a 2003 Chevrolet Impala to a rural residence when he came upon the pickup and was engulfed by the truck’s snow fog at a crest of a hill where he collided head-on with Steven’s vehicle.

The Impala came to rest on the road facing south, while the Dodge Shadow came to a stop in a northeast direction.

Christopher suffered injuries and was transported to the Rolla hospital and then moved to the Trinity Hospital in Minot.

During the time of the accident, the drivers were not wearing seatbelts, but their vehicles’ airbags deployed in the accident.

Steven graduated from Bottineau High School in 2009.

With the individuals killed in the accidents being so young in age, and having numerous friends still attending high school, the Bottineau School district brought in Robyn Tolstad of Westhope to speak to the students during their grieving process. The school district asked Tolstad to speak to the students due to the fact that in 2007 she lost her own teenage daughter, Jenna, in a car accident. The school felt that Tolstad could bring some comfort and assistance to the students who were struggling with the lost of their friends.