KEARNS, Utah — A driver accused of speeding through Kearns early Saturday morning suffered critical burns and injuries after being ejected when their vehicle crashed and caught on fire.
The Taylorsville Police Department said it received calls at approximately 1:40 a.m. of a car burning in the parking lot of a McDonald's at 5400 South 3900 West.
According to police, the unidentified driver was traveling at a high rate of speed when it came to an area with a slight curve in the road. The driver lost control and struck the center divider before barreling across the road and hitting a local oil change location and coming to a rest in the McDonald's parking lot.
"You can tell that the vehicle was driving exceptionally fast, he was doing well beyond any posted speed limit in this state I would guess," said Sgt. Ryan Carver, Taylorsville City Police Department. "Was a considerable debris field all the way across 5400 and into the parking lots of both businesses the building for the McDonald's took a pretty significant damage on the south side entrance is where the car truck."
The vehicle was on fire after it crashed into the McDonald's.
"He struck the center median crossing the center median and basically struck one of the large metal, telephone poles and power poles up there once the vehicle glanced off the power. It hit the Take Five business sign that was there in their parking lot and then it struck the McDonald's just to the east of the Take Five building," said Carver.
Due to the force of the crash, the car broke apart and the driver was ejected.
"He was transported by ambulance to the hospital and then flown by helicopter up to the U of U Burn Ward I am not sure about his condition at this time he was delta minus at the time he was transported," said Carver. "400 has a significant issue of speeding just simply because of the number of lanes and with it being in the middle of the night often times people are speeding late at night when they proceeded the dangers to be less."
Agencies are still investigating, and Sergeant Carver asks Utah, motorists, to drive to the speed limit and be careful.
"I know vehicles are fast, and driving sometimes can be fun, but there's just no going back once you hit that level and end and something goes wrong," said Carver.
