ROAD TO ZERO
Family members injured in Tooele County high speed crash
Apr 14, 2023, 10:36 PM
TOOELE COUNTY, Utah —A woman called on drivers not to get behind the wheel while impaired after a violent crash that left two of her loved ones injured.
The collision happened Thursday on SR-36 at the intersection of Erda Way.
Utah Highway Patrol Cpl. Mike Gordon said a man was southbound on SR-36 when witnesses said it appeared he became distracted and crossed over onto the northbound side of the road, striking another car and leaving the woman and child inside injured.
Photos of that vehicle obtained by KSL Friday showed a mangled right side.
“It makes me really angry because my family could have been killed,” Kenna Reese told KSL 5.
Reese said her daughter, Lucy, and mother, Angie Fox, were inside the car that was hit.
“I got to the hospital and my mom was covered in glass—there’s glass marks all over her body, there was glass in my baby’s diaper,” Reese said. “What if my mom weren’t able to turn out of the way slightly and it was head-on? Highway Patrol said it would have been fatal for everyone involved.”
Gordon said the man behind the wheel of the car that crossed into oncoming traffic was suspected of being impaired and was arrested.
“(He) was going 117 miles an hour in a 60 miles per hour zone,” Reese said. “It’s just crazy. I’m glad they’re not dead.”
During a phone interview with KSL on Friday, Gordon did not specify the driver’s speed prior to the collision and said some of the details, including the driver’s name, weren’t immediately available with the case still under investigation.
“It’s still traumatic,” Reese said. “I don’t think I’ve ever felt that way in my life.”
Reese noted that her mom and daughter were born on the same day and she was grateful their lives were not taken on the same day as well.
She said she believed seatbelts played a positive role in the outcome for both her mom and her daughter and she urged people to not get behind the wheel while under the influence.
“Don’t drink and drive,” Reese said. “It’s selfish—I mean, I don’t know why anybody would.”
