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Editor’s note: The video may be disturbing to some viewers. Viewer discretion is advised. TAYLORSVILLE — Surveillance video is providing police with more details about how two 13-year-old girls were hit by a minivan while walking in a crosswalk Tuesday afternoon in Taylorsville. The girls were alert and talking after the incident and reported to be okay.
The video, provided to KSL by SentraCam, shows the girls about halfway across Redwood Road at 4200 South when a minivan makes a left turn and hits both of them—sending them onto the hood and then to the ground. The vehicle then moves forward toward one of the girls lying on the ground.
The Unified Police Department says the girls had the right of way and that the pedestrian signal had indicated that they could cross the busy intersection. The driver, who had a green light, had the responsibility to yield.
The incident is also raising questions about Utah’s regulation of driver’s licenses after the driver said he didn’t see the girls crossing the street because he is blind in his left eye.
“The girls must have started crossing and I didn’t see them probably because of my vision impairment,” said Louis Truffa, the driver of the minivan.
Truffa is seen in the video trying to help the two girls and police say he is cooperating in the investigation.
“My wife don’t want me to drive much,” said Louis Truffa, the driver of the minivan. “When we go somewhere she’s got to drive; she don’t feel safe.”
Truffa added that he recently renewed his driver’s license and no longer drives at night.
“But I always felt safe in the daylight,” the 71-year-old said, “but obviously I’m not safe to somebody crossing on my left.”
The Utah Driver License Division requires that a person have 20/40 vision and a 120 degree peripheral field in one eye to pass the vision test.
“If you fail to meet this standard with or without glasses, you will be required to get a statement from your eye doctor,” the Driver License Division says on its website.
In addition, all Utahns 65 years and older are required to pass the vision examination every five years to keep their driver’s license.
“Utah is a self-reporting state,” said Chris Caras, director of the Driver License Division. “You are responsible to advise the division if you have health issues that could be complicating to your driver’s license.”
