Blackfoot Valley Dispatch - The Blackfoot Valley's News Source Since 1980

After a quick trip to Missoula last Wednesday, Quinton Grantier headed back to Lincoln on Highway 200 . He was only a couple miles outside of Bonner when his dog, Junebug, jumped into his lap.

As he tried to push her back into his truck's backseat, Grantier briefly took his eyes off the road. Ahead of him, another pickup was stopped, waiting to turn in to the Marco Flats Fishing Access. When Grantier looked up, he saw the other pickup but didn't have time to respond.

"I hit the brakes and turned hard right but I was going about 70 or 65 so it was too late," he said.

The impact pushed the other pickup into the oncoming traffic lane where it collided with a car, but it was Grantier who took the brunt of the collision as the driver's side of his truck hit the rear passenger side of the other vehicle, crushing the front of his truck back toward the cab.

"I ended up being pinned against the dash and couldn't move my legs because the firewall had them pinned," Grantier said.

Members of the Missoula Rural Fire Department responded to the accident and spent about half an hour cutting the driver's side of the cab apart to free Grantier, who suffered a shattered tibia and a punctured lung and was taken to St. Patrrick's Hospital in Missoula.

"The firefighters and ambulance crew were very helpful and made everything as painless as they could," Grantier said.

Montana Highway Patrol Trooper Carl Ward, who responded to the accident, said the occupants of the other two vehicles sustained only minor injuries and chose not to go to the hospital. He said everyone involved in the crash was wearing their seatbelts.

In the confusion after the accident, the dog Junebug went missing. A family member found her, uninjured, near the scene of the accident the next morning.

Lily Feeback

The mangled remains of Quinton Grantier's pickup show the severe damage caused by the impact.

According to Grantier's mother Jackie, Ward underscored the severity of the crash, and Grantier's luck in surviving it with relatively few injuries, by telling her son he was "the healthiest looking fatality I've ever met."

Ward told the BVD the crash did result in a ticket for Grantier, who was cited for inattentive driving.

Since the accident, Grantier has been in the hospital recovering from the injuries he sustained.

In a series of posts on Facebook, Jackie Grantier has provided updates on her son's progress. Doctors operated on his shattered leg on the day of the accident, using plates and screws to piece it back together. Since then her posts indicate he's recovering from the collapsed lung and is moving with the help of a walker. Just prior to press time, Jackie said they expected him to be released Tuesday afternoon.

"He has a long recovery ahead of him," she told the BVD.