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Team coverageA 56-year-old man is now in serious condition after being hit by a UTA bus around 8 a.m. The man was walking in a crosswalk at the intersection of 300 West and 400 South in Salt Lake when he was hit.
Curtis Lewis was walking with his friend in the intersection when the bus came through. Lewis said, "He came about 2 inches from hitting me, and I didn't have any time to say anything to my friend."
The bus struck the other man. Lewis said, "He got knocked 15 feet out of the crosswalk into the street."
Police say the men were walking northbound in a crosswalk when the UTA bus turned left and hit the 56-year-old.
Lewis said the bus driver was speeding through a yellow light; however, police say the driver had a green light and that the victim was crossing against an improper crosswalk signal.
Dennis McGowan, with the Salt Lake Police Department, said, "In this case the bus, it was a UTA bus, had a high profile. I'm sure the bus driver was looking as well, but, because of that profile, he probably didn't see the pedestrian crossing the crosswalk, and the UTA bus driver had the light in his favor anyway."
The victim was taken to the hospital in critical condition and was upgraded to serious this afternoon. Police say he suffered head trauma and was being combative as paramedics attended to him on scene.
The driver of the bus was not injured, and the bus was empty at the time. UTA says that the driver was on his way back to the garage after working the morning commute.
UTA is grateful there were no passengers on board, but its driver is shaken up and may go through counseling.
UTA spokeswoman Carrie Bohnsack-Ware says, "The policy for UTA now, no matter if it was our fault or otherwise, we will be putting the bus driver on administrative leave and then give him a drug and alcohol test just to make sure he wasn't on anything."
Our cameras rolled on the 400 South and 300 West intersection for half an hour just to see if people routinely break traffic laws. Most played by the rules. Darren Sipes, with the Salt Lake City Police Department, said, "It's not necessarily flagrant, not anything more than what I've seen anywhere else really. In fact, there's a couple areas where it's more prevalent than it is here."
Police say they are investigating and have not said whether citations will be issued.
Police have not released the name of the pedestrian who was hit today.
E-mail: mrichards@ksl.com
E-mail: spark@ksl.com
E-mail: gkennedy@ksl.com
