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SALT LAKE CITY — A semitruck driver from California suspected of driving while intoxicated was arrested after troopers say he hit and seriously injured a motorcyclist in Honeyville, Box Elder County.
Just after 3 p.m. Sunday, witnesses told the Utah Highway Patrol that a semitruck headed north on I-15 was unable to stay in its lane before it exited near Honeyville and “proceeded to run the stop sign at the bottom of the off-ramp. The semi failed to yield the right of way to a motorcycle traveling east on state Route 240,” according to a police booking affidavit.
The semi struck the motorcycle, “causing the rider to be thrown from the motorcycle and sustain serious bodily injuries,” the affidavit states.
The semi driver allegedly kept going, however, and got back onto I-15. Troopers responding to the motorcycle crash found half of the semi’s bumper and a California license plate at the scene, according to the affidavit.
Troopers then located the semi at a truck stop off state Route 13 in Corrine. Alcohol could be smelled on the driver’s breath but he claimed he had not been drinking, the affidavit states. The driver was given a portable Breathalyzer test, which indicated his blood-alcohol content was 0.15%, or three times the legal limit, according to the UHP.
Troopers then found “a tall can of beer mixed with tomato juice inside the cab” and “four more cans of the same beer in the fridge in the sleeper and two large plastic bags of smashed empty cans of the same beer cans behind the driver seat,” according to the police affidavit.
Julio Covarrubias, 58, of California, was arrested for investigation of DUI causing serious injury, failing to remain at a serious injury accident, reckless driving and being an on-duty commercial driver in possession of alcohol.
