CANYON COUNTY, Idaho — A 65-year-old woman from Caldwell died Thursday evening after she and a man were thrown from a pickup just south of Greenleaf, Idaho State Police said. A Facebook post from Greenleaf Friends Academy indicates the woman was a girls volleyball and basketball coach, Loma Bittick.
The Ford pickup, driven by a 64-year-old Caldwell man, was headed north on Friends Road, when a VW Jetta driven by a 27-year-old Meridian man struck the pickup as the VW headed west on Lower Pleasant Ridge Road. According to Idaho State Police, the driver of the VW failed to yield at a stop sign.
Both the pickup and the car came to a rest off the northwest corner of the intersection of Friends and Lower Pleasant Ridge. ISP said the driver of the pickup and his passenger were both thrown from the pickup. The driver of the pickup was flown to the hospital. His passenger -- the woman who later died -- and the other driver were taken to the hospital by ground ambulance.
Police said none of the people involved in the crash were wearing seat belts. ISP continues to investigate.
The Canyon County Coroner has not yet announced the identity or the cause and manner of death of the woman who was killed. However, Greenleaf Friends Academy on Friday announced the passing of Loma Bittick, the academy's high school math teacher and girls basketball and volleyball coach, and that the death was the result of "a serious automobile accident." The school also said her husband, Jim, is in the hospital in "stable condition."
John Wustrow with our news partner Idaho Press reports that Jim and Loma Bittick coached the basketball team together.
Greenleaf Friends Academy was closed Friday. and Friday night's boys basketball game against Rimrock has been canceled and will not be rescheduled.
School officials also said in a Facebook post that the Greenleaf girls basketball team was not able to play its 1A Division I district championship game scheduled for Thursday night against Liberty Charter. Liberty and Greenleaf are district co-champions. The Greenleaf girls qualified for the Idaho 1A DI State Tournament last weekend for the first time since 2009, beating Rimrock 37-22 in the district semifinals, Wustrow reported.
"Thank you for your prayers for our students, faculty, staff and the greater GFA community. Greenleaf has a rich and established history of coming together in moments like these," the GFA post states. "We support one another and it is in our fellowship that honors and glorifies our Lord Jesus Christ. We are called to draw closer to one another and Him..."
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