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MONTICELLO — The Utah Highway Patrol confirmed Tuesday it had forwarded its investigation into a triple fatal crash to the San Juan County Attorney’s Office to be screened.
The county attorney will now determine whether criminal charges are warranted in the Aug. 3 incident.
On that day, about 4:15 p.m. on U.S. 191 near Monticello, a 2019 Ford F-150 pickup truck crossed into oncoming traffic for an unknown reason and hit head-on a 1999 Ford Expedition towing a boat, according to the UHP.
Both occupants of the SUV, Kenneth Harding, 75, and Frances Harding, 73, of Goodman, Arizona, were killed. The passenger in the pickup truck, Patricia Storm, 68, of Minot, North Dakota, was also killed.
The lone survivor, the driver of the truck, was flown by medical helicopter to a hospital in Colorado in critical condition. All four patients were wearing seat belts, the UHP stated.
According to a recently filed search warrant affidavit, investigators may be trying to determine if the driver of the F-150 suffered a medical condition, or if her driving was affected because of medicine she took due to that medical condition.
The driver told a Colorado state trooper at the hospital that she ”has a history of having seizures and takes Klonopin when she feels a seizure coming on,” the warrant states.
Common side effects of the medicine include drowsiness and dizziness, according to the warrant.
