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SALT LAKE CITY — A 45-year-old woman was in extremely critical condition with head trauma Tuesday after a box truck drifted into the shoulder where the woman had just stepped out of her vehicle and hit her.
About 12:40 p.m., a woman traveling southbound on I-215 West pulled off to the far right side of the road near 500 North for an unknown reason, said Utah Highway Patrol Sgt. Keith Dockstader.
"We don't know if it was mechanical or something else," UHP Cpl. Todd Johnson said.
Johnson said the woman was well off on the shoulder and not encroaching the travel lanes.
"She made a safe stop," he said.
But just as the woman got out of her vehicle, she was hit by a box truck that was switching from the middle lane to the far right lane, he said.
The woman was taken by ambulance to a local hospital. It was not immediately known Tuesday why the woman had pulled off to the side of the road and got out of her vehicle.
The driver of the truck, a 50-year-old man, was later treated himself by paramedics for having breathing problems. Johnson said he did not know whether the problems were caused by a pre-exisiting health condition or because the man was so distraught over the accident.
Charges against the driver were pending Tuesday.
The name of the woman was not immediately released.
Email:preavy@ksl.com
