Collision with semi results in serious injuries, scattered storage containers

A collision near 300 East and 300 South in Washington Tuesday morning left one man seriously injured, Washington, Utah, July 5, 2016 | Photo by Julie Applegate, St. George News

WASHINGTON CITY – A collision in Washington Tuesday morning knocked two large storage containers off a semitractor-trailer and left one man seriously injured.

A collision near 300 East and 300 South in Washington Tuesday morning left one man seriously injured, Washington, Utah, July 5, 2016 | Photo by Julie Applegate, St. George News
A collision near 300 East and 300 South in Washington Tuesday morning left one man seriously injured, Washington, Utah, July 5, 2016 | Photo by Julie Applegate, St. George News

The collision occurred a little before 9:15 a.m., Washington City Police spokesman Ed Kantor said.

The semi, driven by an adult male, was traveling south on 300 East while a pickup truck was northbound when the two collided just south of 300 South, Kantor said.

For reasons unknown at the time of publication of this report, the pickup truck crossed the center line and hit a “glancing blow” on both the semitractor and the trailer it was pulling, Kantor said. The impact knocked two of the storage containers off the trailer into the road.

The driver of the pickup, an adult male, was seriously injured in the crash and was transported to Dixie Regional Medical Center by Gold Cross Ambulance, Kantor said.

A collision near 300 East and 300 South in Washington Tuesday morning left one man seriously injured, Washington, Utah, July 5, 2016 | Photo by Julie Applegate, St. George News
A collision near 300 East and 300 South in Washington Tuesday morning left one man seriously injured, Washington, Utah, July 5, 2016 | Photo by Julie Applegate, St. George News

The driver of the semi was properly restrained and was uninjured. It is not known whether the driver of the pickup truck was wearing a seatbelt, Kantor said.

The cause of the accident is still under investigation, Kantor said, and no citations have been issued as this report publishes.

The driver of the semi was an On Site Storage driver from California delivering containers to the company’s Washington location, Kim Hollie, a secretary at On Site Storage, said.

Both vehicles involved in the collision were disabled and had to be towed from the scene. A forklift was used to load the storage containers onto another semitrailer.

A collision near 300 East and 300 South in Washington Tuesday morning left one man seriously injured, Washington, Utah, July 5, 2016 | Photo by Julie Applegate, St. George News
A collision near 300 East and 300 South in Washington Tuesday morning left one man seriously injured, Washington, Utah, July 5, 2016 | Photo by Julie Applegate, St. George News

A man who lives nearby but asked not to be identified said he heard an explosion and thought something had blown up. When he reached the crash site, he found the driver of the pickup truck on the ground outside the vehicle.

The man said he thought a tank located in the back of the pickup had exploded during the crash and pointed to a large metal canister located approximately 40 feet up the side of a hill next to 300 East.

Fire crews brought the canister back down the hill while cleaning up the accident site.

Kantor said the pickup was powered by natural gas and that the canister had come off during the crash, but there was no explosion.

Traffic was diverted off 300 East and through neighborhood streets while crews cleared the scene and cleaned up a large amount of debris left by the collision.

Washington City Police Department, Washington City Public Works, Washington City Fire Department, Washington County Sheriff’s Office and Washington City Fire and Rescue responded to the incident.

This report is based on preliminary information provided by law enforcement or other emergency responders and may not contain the full scope of findings.

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Copyright St. George News, SaintGeorgeUtah.com LLC, 2016, all rights reserved.

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1 Comment

  • Proud Rebel July 5, 2016 at 2:38 pm

    Holy moly, looking at that first picture of the pickup, it is hard to see anybody living through that! But looking further on, and seeing the lack of impingement into the truck cab, makes a person respect how vehicles are built anymore.

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