Driver of truck that slid off overpass may have been disoriented


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LEHI -- Three people are in critical condition after a construction truck slid off an I-15 overpass and into traffic on the road below. Utah Highway Patrol now says the truck driver didn't realize he was on the shoulder of the interstate.

Driver of truck that slid off overpass may have been disoriented

The men in the truck were gathering orange barrels from the freeway overpass above State Route 92 at the Highland-Alpine exit around 10:30 p.m. Thursday when the driver of the truck went too far to the right. The truck went off the overpass, slid down the concrete embankment and slammed into a car traveling west on S.R. 92 under the bridge.

UHP Trooper Brent Shelby said, "The construction vehicle was on the embankment southbound on the south side. The other vehicle that was westbound on S.R. 92 came to rest in the eastbound lanes facing eastbound."

Driver of truck that slid off overpass may have been disoriented

The truck hit the front, right side of the car. The car's driver was taken to Intermountain Medical Center in critical condition.

Troopers say the two workers in the construction vehicle also were taken to Intermountain Medical Center, also both in critical condition. According to an employee at Interstate Barricade in Murray, where the truck employees were dispatched from, one employee suffered a head injury, the other a back injury.

UHP now says the driver of the construction truck thought his vehicle was in a traffic lane when it was actually on the shoulder of the road.

The Utah Department of Transportation's spokesman for Utah County, Scott Thompson, tells KSL the driver may have become disoriented due to traffic on I-15. His truck was driving against traffic.

Thompson says the driver and the other man in the truck were working on the Express Lane project. Thompson believes this is the first injury incident related to this project.

E-mail: spark@ksl.com


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