Estimated read time: 1-2 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 Information in the story may be outdated or superseded by additional information.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.
Ashley Hayes ReportingThe Salt Lake City intersection closed because of a fatal car accident this morning is now open. Traffic at 7th East and 8th South was redirected for several hours this morning. That's where a garbage truck ran into a small pickup.
7th East and 8th South is a busy intersection, but from about 4:30am this morning until after 10:00am this intersection was closed except for traffic heading south. It was bad scene this morning, which is why it took so long, more than five hours for police to clean up the intersection.
Police say a trash truck ran the red light, heading east and slammed into a small pickup heading north. The 68 year-old man driving the pick-up was killed. The 74 year-old woman, a passenger in the pickup is in critical condition.
Police say the 36 year-old Garbage truck driver was not hurt. While police don't believe the driver was under the influence, they are running a toxicology test to be sure.
Det Joe Cyr, Salt Lake City Police: "Part of the procedure if to ask for a blood draw... He's very upset because of the circumstances."
Based on the results of that test, the garbage truck driver could face some serious charges ranging from running a red light to vehicular manslaughter.
The company that owns the garbage truck is called ACE and Eyewitness news checked its safety record. That record is worse than average. We learned the Utah Department of Transportation has scheduled a safety inspection next week at ACE Garbage.
