Two people died and one was injured in three unrelated accidents in the region early Friday.

At least one death, in Latah County, is being attributed to the weather.

Lee F. Roberts, 34, was walking for help after his 1990 Mazda slid off Miller Road about midnight and got stuck.

About 2:30 a.m., according to the Latah County sheriff's office, he left his passenger, Dawn A.M. Moore, 30, in the car and started walking for help. At daylight, about 6:30 a.m., Moore went in search of him and found him about a half-mile from the vehicle, facedown in the middle of Lenville Road near the intersection with Genesee-Juliaetta Road, according to the sheriff's office.

She moved Roberts to the side of the road and walked until she was picked up by a passing motorist, according to a police report. Deputies, along with the Genesee ambulance and Moscow ambulance, were dispatched to the area and found Roberts unconscious. Both he and Moore were taken to Gritman Medical Hospital, where Roberts was pronounced dead at 10:40 a.m., apparently of hypothermia.

Moore was treated and released.

A man who has not yet been identified by Nez Perce County law enforcement pending notification of relatives died after his vehicle went down a steep hillside on Webb Ridge Road. The time of the accident is uncertain.

He was pronounced dead at St. Joseph Regional Medical Center, where he was taken following the accident.

He was found about 10 a.m., when Nate Luther and Louis Heimgartner of Lewiston saw tire tracks going over the edge of the road about four miles from Webb Road.

The two men were on a late-morning hunting trip after taking Luther's daughter to school, and the tracks were clearly etched in the soft soil, Luther said.

They got close enough to the edge to see the undercarriage of what appeared to be a pickup truck or similar vehicle upside down at the very bottom of the draw. Luther said he called the Nez Perce County sheriff's office to see if an accident had been reported, then got out and yelled down the hillside. Someone called back up to them. "I called 911 again and said someone's down there," Luther said.

Heimgartner scrambled about two-thirds of the way down the steep hillside where the man had apparently been ejected and sat with him for half an hour or 45 minutes, talking to him and trying to keep him awake until paramedics from the Lewiston Fire Department arrived, Luther said. He had a bad gash on the back of his head, Luther said. "The guy kept saying 'I have no idea what happened.' "

He lost consciousness as paramedics were putting him on a backboard, Luther said.

At the top of the hill, six men from the sheriff's office, Nez Perce Tribal Police, fire department paramedics, and Luther hauled on the rope that brought them up the hill.

"It was quite a deal they rigged up," Luther said.

Linda Sienkiewicz, a nurse at St. Joseph Regional Medical Center, arrived from her home farther up the hill to see the ambulance lights flashing.

Her first thought was her fiance had come down a little earlier, she said. Her second was of her husband, Kevin Sienkiewicz, who died in a four-wheeler accident four years ago on Schweitzer Mountain. "I saw the ambulances and it kind of brings it back," she said.

She could see the ambulance crew had left a lot of things on the hillside, she said.

She climbed down the hill, and retrieved two bags of personal items thrown from the truck during its descent, then started the long trip back up, sometimes pushing one of the bags ahead as she climbed, refusing every time someone called down to ask if she wanted a rope thrown down.

"She's got heart," one of the rescue workers said.

Finally, half a dozen feet from the top, where the dirt was softest and almost straight up and down, she accepted a hand.

"Little things like that mean a lot to the family," she told EMT Dan Gludt and Deputy John Svancara, two of the four men still on the scene.

She just wanted to lend a hand, she said as she walked back to her Jeep. "It's just what you do. It's just the right thing. It's actually helpful to me. It helps your heart because you know what a family is going through, waiting and wondering."

"These city guys work hard," she added, "and this is their busy season."

The third accident occurred about 10:30 a.m. on U.S. Highway 95 at Red Duck Lane north of Lapwai sent the driver to the hospital via ambulance, but with non-life threatening injuries, according to an officer on the scene.

The driver of a late-model Cadillac with Latah County license plates was driving south when he drifted off the west side of the highway. The Cadillac landed on the banks of Lapwai Creek.

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Lee may be contacted at slee@lmtribune.com or (208) 848-2266.