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MILLCREEK — Five cars were crushed Friday night when an allegedly impaired driver knocked over a carport at a Millcreek apartment complex. Three days later, the cars remain trapped and unmoved.
At about 9 p.m. on Feb. 8, police say 29-year-old Isoa Blake was in the middle of moving in. He was intoxicated when he hopped into the moving truck.
The man backed into a parking structure while moving a U-Haul in the parking lot of the Fox Point in Old Farm apartment complex at 564 E. 4050 South, according to Unified Police Lt. Justin Hoyal.
He then pulled forward and struck a another parking structure. This second structure collapsed, crushing five vehicles parked beneath, Hoyal said.
John Spencer hopped in his pickup truck and drove to block Blake, who was trying to drive away, in.
"He took off. The ramp was dragging. He was dumping furniture and stuff out of the back of the UHaul," Spencer said. "All you had to do was follow the debris trail, and it led you right to him."
Police were there within minutes.
Another resident, John Sorenson, said the structure toppled like a "house of cards" and also scraped down the side of an Escalade parked nearby. A photo sent through ksl.com's iWitness app shows the line of cars stuck under the toppled, snow-covered structure.
While the residents are angry over what happened, at least no one was hurt.
"The person in the far end one had just gotten out of their car just a couple of minutes before, carrying a TV. So the timing could have been a lot worse," Sorenson said.
His Mini Cooper was one of those crushed vehicles, said they have been under the collapsed carport since Friday.
When and how the cars will be removed isn't clear. Sorenson said he talked to a maintenance worker who said work could begin Monday or Tuesday. The apartment complex had no comment Monday on the incident or when the when the cars would be extricated.
"Everybody's just really confused and kind of upset that it's been three days now and our cars are all just still under there," Sorensen said.
Blake was arrested and charged with driving under the influence.
