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RIVERDALE -- Bad weather created terrible driving conditions Sunday, setting the stage for a tragic accident that left three young boys without a mother.
Though there were dozens of accidents along the Wasatch Front, the one people will remember took place on Interstate 15 in Riverdale. According to the Utah Highway Patrol, a southbound Dodge 1500 pickup truck hit some ice and spun out around 4 p.m.
It came to rest against the center median. That's when disaster struck.
Related:
Storm leads to more than 200 crashes statewide
Another big winter storm packed a punch across the Wasatch Front Sunday, bringing the kinds of conditions many drivers find difficult to handle."Another vehicle right behind that vehicle also spun out, came across the interstate and struck that first vehicle," said Lt. John Mitchell with the Utah Highway Patrol. "That subsequent collision killed the driver of the second vehicle."
That driver, the only occupant of the Dodge Durango, was 40-year-old Silvia De Jesus Ramirez of Clearfield.
"A very tragic story, from what we're gathering," said Mitchell. "She's a single mother who lost her husband about nine months ago to cancer. Has three small children, 16, 14 and 12 -- three boys."
As authorities dealt with dozens of crashes in the day-long storm, they saw that many -- including the fatal one -- had the same root cause: too much speed for the icy conditions.
"If people would just slow down, take their time, give themselves enough time to get where they need to go, we could avoid these types of accidents," Mitchell said.
The grandmother of the three boys was visiting from Mesa, Ariz., at the time of the crash. The boys are with her, their lives changed forever.
E-mail: hollenhorst@ksl.com
