UPDATE: Two children, driver killed in Provo auto-pedestrian crash

PROVO, Utah — Two children and one man have died following a crash, according to police in Provo.

Officers said the crash happened Monday morning on 700 North near 800 East.

“For unknown reasons, the vehicle crossed the eastbound lanes” and ended up on the sidewalk. Provo police said in a Facebook post that the driver was 59-year-old Darren Albertson of Provo.

The car struck a 10-year-old boy and his 9-year-old sister, who were on their way to school, before crashing into a porch and gas line, according to Capt. Brian Taylor with the Provo Police Department. The two children and the driver of the car, a 54-year-old man, were taken to area hospitals in critical condition, where they later died.

The car hit Sabrina Pendleton’s house. “I heard a series of crashes and then I felt the car hit our house,” she said.

She ran outside and found the driver of the SUV unconscious and gas leaking from a ruptured gas line.

“Tried getting him to wake up, shouting at him,” she said. “I’m trained in CPR so I tried getting him out of the car to do CPR but he was too big for me to get out of the car.”

She ran for help and that’s when she saw the brother and sister.

“I ran down the street a little bit and saw the two kids laying the street and people performing CPR on them,” Pendleton said. Police arrived and got the driver out of the car and immediately started CPR on him.

“Everybody was really shaken up about it,” Pendleton said. Several people who saw the crash helped the victims before the first responders arrived.

“It was a lot of intense emotions because we know that these kids and this gentleman were probably not going to make it,” Pendleton said.

“Because this is a traffic accident with significant loss of life, it’s under very careful investigation by the Provo Police Department accident investigation and reconstruction team,” Taylor said. “They are investigating every circumstance and potential cause of the accident.”

Police have not released the names of the children.

“This loss of life, it’s right here in Provo and we feel it and we feel for these impacted families,” Taylor said.

The Provo School District was coordinating grief counseling services for impacted school communities, and Dominion Energy crews repaired finished repairs on the broken gas line later Monday morning.

A GoFundMe* campaign was set up to help pay for the funeral costs of the two children.

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