Woman killed in car crash was teacher, coach at Idaho’s Greenleaf Friends Academy

A 65-year-old Caldwell woman died Thursday after a two-vehicle collision west of the city, according to a news release Friday from the Idaho State Police.

Greenleaf Friends Academy identified the woman as Loma Bittick, a math teacher, volleyball coach and assistant girls basketball coach at the school.

At 5:15 p.m., Bittick was in the passenger seat of a 2015 Ford F150 pickup truck driven by her 64-year-old husband, Jim Bittick. They were heading northbound on Friends Road when a 2009 Volkswagen Jetta struck their vehicle at the Lower Pleasant Ridge intersection. The Jetta, driven by a 27-year-old man from Meridian, was traveling westbound but failed to observe a stop sign and then hit the Ford, ISP said in the release.

The Bitticks were ejected from the vehicle, and Jim Bittick was transported by air ambulance to a hospital. Loma Bittick and the Volkswagen driver were taken by ground ambulance, and she died from her injuries at the hospital, police said.

None of the people involved in the crash had seat belts on, according to Idaho State Police, which is still investigating.

According to the Greenleaf Friends Academy Facebook page, the girls basketball team’s 1A Division I District Three Tournament championship game Thursday night against Liberty Charter was canceled after news of the crash. Jim Bittick is the team’s head coach.

“The GFA Community has been saddened by the passing of the high school math teacher and girls volleyball/basketball coach, Loma Bittick,” the school wrote on Facebook. “Loma was in a serious automobile accident last evening along with her husband. ... Jim is in the hospital in stable condition at this time.”

Loma Bittick led the school’s volleyball team to the state tournament in 2021, and the basketball team is scheduled to play in next week’s state tournament at Columbia High School in Nampa starting Thursday. It’s the first state berth for Greenleaf Friends since 2011.

After Thursday’s cancellation, the Grizzlies and Liberty Charter were named co-champions of the district. Both had already qualified for state.

Reporter Michael Lycklama contributed.