Deadly crash; a reminder for drivers to play it safe this Labor Day Weekend
Aug 30, 2024, 1:06 PM | Updated: 6:37 pm
SALT LAKE CITY — One person is dead, and another was injured after a tire blew on Interstate 80, causing a dump truck to lose control and roll down a hill, according to Utah Highway Patrol.
Cpl. Luis Silva with UHP said a 20-year-old woman was driving a Mazda on I-80 when her tire blew near milepost 107. She lost control of the car, causing a dump truck nearby to hit the Mazda.
“The tires were good,” Lt. Ben Fallows with UHP said. “It just happened to blow out. It’s just one of those fluke deals.”
The truck subsequently hit the guardrail and rolled off the freeway down an embankment. Silva did not say how far downward the embankment was. When it reached the bottom of the hill, it caught fire. The driver inside the truck died at the scene, Silva said.
“After that first initial impact, we believe the vehicle was still in front of the dump truck. And in an effort to avoid hitting the car, the dump truck swerved to the right, went up over the barrier,” Fallows said. “When it hit the dirt it flipped up and actually came to rest facing the wrong direction, and went up into flames.”
Fallows told KSL TV that some bystanders tried to help initially, but then the dump truck went up in flames. “There wasn’t really much anybody could do,” he said, calling it a “fluke, tragic situation.”
The woman driving the Mazda was taken to the hospital with minor injuries.
Westbound lanes of I-80 were closed, Silva said.
Another crash just miles down the road on the interstate was reported days earlier.
Officials plead with drivers to be vigilant and focused during the upcoming weekend, to avoid any more accidental deaths.
“This has not been a good year for Utah, by the way of the 100 Deadliest Days,” Fallows told KSL TV. “And so we are just advocating that anything you can do to slow things down, just be patient with each other on the road when we drive around, make sure we’re cautious, not being distracted. We’re seeing a lot of typical things we see when speed is a factor the crashed we’re seeing right now.”
This is a breaking news story. It may be updated.
