Tim Leeds Havre Daily News tleeds@havredailynews.com
The name of a 5-year-old girl killed when she rode her bicycle in front of a vehicle in Harlem Sunday has been released, and the Montana Highway Patrol has released information about two other crashes in the area over the weekend. Marissa Birdtail of Harlem, 5, was killed when the driver of a vehicle on Main Street in Harlem was unable to avoid hitting the girl when she rode her bicycle in front of the vehicle at 12:08 p.m. Sunday, the Highway Patrol reported. Birdtail was transported to Indian Health Services at the Fort Belknap Indian Reservation, where she was pronounced dead. No citations were issued in connection with the incident. The Highway Patrol also reports that at 10:14 a.m. Saturday, Ramona Azure of Zortman, 75, was injured after she fell asleep while driving a 1995 Buick Park Avenue about 1 mile east of Chinook. The vehicle traveled across the eastbound lane of U.S. Highway 2, then collided with a guardrail and rotated 1 3/4 times before coming to rest in the ditch on the south side of the roadway, the Highway Patrol reported. Azure was transported to Northern Montana Hospital. She was listed as a patient at the hospital this morning, but her condition was not available. Later that day, two men were injured in another crash west of Chinook, the Highway Patrol reported. Tyler Simonson of Lewistown, 27, and Kipp Sjostrom of Malta, 34, were traveling westbound in a 2000 Ford F250 extended cab at 11:05 p.m. Sunday about nine miles west of Chinook on Highway 2 when the vehicle drifted off the right side of the road, the Highway Patrol reported. The vehicle went into the ditch beside the road and rolled. Simonson and Sjostrom were ejected from the vehicle and were transported to Northern Montana Hospital. The crash is still under investigation, the Highway Patrol reported Monday. Simonson and Sjostrom were both listed as in stable condition at Benefis Healthcare in Great Falls this morning.
