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SPANISH FORK — A mother and her young son were killed and three others critically injured in a two-car crash in Spanish Fork Canyon Saturday.
The Jacobsen family was reportedly driving home to Cleveland, Utah, after attending a high school rodeo event in Oakley, when a Dodge Intrepid pulled out in front of them Saturday evening.
According to the Utah Highway Patrol, a 25-year-old woman attempted to make a left turn off state-Route 89 near Thistle to go west on state-Route 6, but pulled out in front of the Jacobsen's Dodge 3500 pickup that was also hauling a horse trailer with three horses inside.
Utah Highway Patrol trooper Joshua White said the pickup tried to avoid the other vehicle but ended up clipping the car's front corner panel. The impact sent the pickup 100 feet down a ravine. When the truck hit the bottom of the ravine, the long horse trailer slammed into and crushed the back of the pickup, White said.
Heather Jacobsen, 38, who was in the front passenger seat, was killed. Her 7-year-old son, Broc, who was in the rear right passenger seat was also killed. Landon, Jacobsen, 38, Heather's husband and the driver, and their 16-year-old son Bowdie Jacobsen, who was in the left rear passenger seat, were transported to a local hospital in critical condition. Bowdie Jacobsen was reportedly a member of the Emery High School Rodeo Club.
The driver of the Intrepid, Amelia Allan, 25, of Provo, was also transported to a local hospital in critical condition.
White said the three horses were seriously injured, but were able to move on their own power into another trailer that was sent to collect the animals.
Neither drugs, alcohol nor weather were believed to have contributed to the crash, though White said investigators did not know Sunday why the woman pulled out in front of the pickup.
That area of state-Route 6 was shutdown for about 90 minutes, then alternated with one lane open back and forth until about midnight when the road was re-opened.
