West Jordan man killed in I-15 crash that closed northbound freeway for hours


14 photos
Save Story

Show 1 more video

Leer en español

Estimated read time: 2-3 minutes

This archived news story is available only for your personal, non-commercial use. Information in the story may be outdated or superseded by additional information. Reading or replaying the story in its archived form does not constitute a republication of the story.

DRAPER — A West Jordan man is dead after a five-vehicle crash that shut down I-15 northbound for several hours while crews cleaned up the crash, authorities said.

Police identified the man as Christian M. Lantis, 25.

Emergency crews responded to a report of a crash on the freeway north of 12300 South just before 12:45 p.m., according to Utah Highway Patrol Sgt. Todd Royce.

Royce said a box truck, driven by Lantis, rear-ended a blue passenger car on the freeway. The truck then spun and a full-sized RV collided with the box truck near the truck's driver-side door.

"That impact was a fairly high-speed impact being on the interstate and you can only imagine the damage to the box truck and to the motor home," he said. "It was a pretty significant crash."

Royce said Lantis was pronounced dead at the scene after attempts to resuscitate the man failed.

No other major injuries were reported. In all, five vehicles were involved.

The cause of the crash remains under investigation, Royce said. It was raining heavily at the time of the crash and officials were looking to see if weather played a factor in the crash.

Royce added that witnesses saw Lantis on his phone prior to the crash, which may have also factored.

A crash scene investigator takes photos of a crash on I-15 northbound on Monday, March 27, 2017. A man died in the crash, police said. (Photo: KSL TV)
A crash scene investigator takes photos of a crash on I-15 northbound on Monday, March 27, 2017. A man died in the crash, police said. (Photo: KSL TV)

The crash closed I-15 northbound for about five hours as police investigated. Officials cleared one lane to allow vehicles trapped between the 12300 South exit and the crash site to leave after about an hour after the crash.

Utah Department of Transportation officials originally estimated they would not be reopened until at least 4 p.m.; however, all five lanes of the freeway didn't reopen until about 6 p.m.

"Whenever we have a serious injury or a fatal crash like this, it takes some time to get that information documented," Royce said, of the lengthy delay in reopening the freeway.

Photos

Most recent Utah stories

Related topics

Utah
Carter Williams

    STAY IN THE KNOW

    Get informative articles and interesting stories delivered to your inbox weekly. Subscribe to the KSL.com Trending 5.
    By subscribing, you acknowledge and agree to KSL.com's Terms of Use and Privacy Policy.

    KSL Weather Forecast