Officials identify woman killed Friday after being hit by multiple vehicles on freeway


Save Story
Leer en español

Estimated read time: 2-3 minutes

This archived news story is available only for your personal, non-commercial use. Information in the story may be outdated or superseded by additional information. Reading or replaying the story in its archived form does not constitute a republication of the story.

Update: The woman killed on I-215 Friday was identified by the Utah Highway Patrol on Sunday as 31-year-old Veronica Tapia of West Valley City.


SALT LAKE CITY — Utah Highway Patrol said a woman died after she was struck by multiple vehicles on the westside belt of I-215 at 3800 South Friday morning.

Woman walking on the freeway

Highway Patrol officials said they first started getting reports around 12:30 a.m. that someone walking on the freeway was hit by multiple vehicles. Upon arrival, they found an individual dead at the scene.

Officials said at this time it’s still unclear why the woman was walking on the freeway.

“That’s still under investigation,” explained UHP trooper Chris Bishop. “That’s why we’re treating it as a crime scene. Based on the circumstances of her being on the freeway and trying to figure out who she is and where she came from.”

He said northbound lanes at 4700 South were shutdown for multiple hours due to the accident. A couple of lanes were able to reopen at around 5:30 a.m.

A call from the scene

According to officials, all of the drivers involved in the accident have been cooperating with investigators.

“I believe it was one of the drivers who struck the individual that called into dispatch, not knowing what had happened,” explained Bishop. “Then multiple calls came in following that initial call.”

The investigation is currently being handled by a couple of different agencies.

“We have our major crash investigation team on scene, as well as our investigators with the state bureau of investigation,” he explained. "(They are) trying to piece together what happened and getting a timeline of why this female was on the freeway and trying to figure out what brought her to the freeway.”

Most recent Utah stories

Related topics

Utah
John Wojcik

    STAY IN THE KNOW

    Get informative articles and interesting stories delivered to your inbox weekly. Subscribe to the KSL.com Trending 5.
    By subscribing, you acknowledge and agree to KSL.com's Terms of Use and Privacy Policy.

    KSL Weather Forecast