CENTERVILLE, Utah – One girl is dead and two more are hospitalized after an SUV hit roadway debris.
The crash happened along northbound I-15 near Parrish Lane in Centerville at around 12:45 p.m. It closed the interstate for several hours, reopening at around 3:30 p.m.
Witnesses say a three-foot car ramp was underneath the Parrish Lane overpass and a car in the right lane hit it, causing a three-car pileup, and the ramp ended up in the far left lane.
Two teenagers involved in the accident got out of their cars and were standing on the side of the freeway. A 16-year-old girl was still in her vehicle.
Troopers had just arrived when a Range Rover in the left lane hit a car ramp, went up on two wheels and slid across the northbound lanes, crashing into the teens standing on the side of the road and the car with the 16-year-old girl.
“I saw a Range Rover go airborne and slam into a green car and two little white cars. One of the women in the car, the girl, went airborne and landed in the road. I pulled over and came to help and that’s it. It’s pretty much a blur,” said one witness.
Utah Highway Patrol Trooper Shaun McWilliams and other paramedics performed CPR on the 16-year-old girl for nearly half an hour but say she was unresponsive.
She was transported to the hospital in critical condition where she died Thursday evening. The other two girls were conscious when transported in serious condition.
Utah Highway Patrol hopes the driver who lost the ramp will come forward, but they say they already have leads on a Salt Lake City resident.
