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ROOSEVELT — A Salt Lake City man died Monday on U.S. 40 west of Roosevelt in a fiery crash between a commercial pickup truck and a tanker truck hauling crude oil, the Utah Highway Patrol said.
Witnesses said Jeffrey Hitchcock was driving a 1-ton pickup truck owned by a concrete company when he crossed into the path of a tanker truck pulling two trailers loaded with oil just before 11 a.m., UHP Lt. Jeff Chugg said.
The impact caused the pickup to erupt into flames with Hitchcock, 42, still inside. Other drivers grabbed fire extinguishers and tried to put the fire out before Roosevelt firefighters arrived, but the flames were too intense.
After the collision with the pickup, the tanker rolled off the right side of the highway. The two trailers it was pulling remained intact, Chugg said.
"We're looking at next to nothing as far as a spill goes," the lieutenant said. "Just a little slosh out of the top of the tanks."
The driver of the tanker truck and his passenger were both wearing seat belts. The driver suffered minor injuries and the passenger was uninjured, according to Chugg.
"The semi did flip over," he said. "I'm certain that wearing their seat belts helped them a great deal to sustain fewer injuries."
A second tanker truck was brought to the crash site to offload the crude oil.
The crash closed the highway in both directions for more than six hours.
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