Interstate 15 crash involving wrong-way driver leaves 1 dead
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- A head-on crash involving a wrong-way driver on Sunday, March 26, 2023, left one person dead. This photo shows the burned wreckage from the crash, which occurred around 400 North in the Marriott-Slaterville area.
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- A head-on crash involving a wrong-way driver on Sunday, March 26, 2023, left one person dead. This photo shows the burned wreckage from the crash, which occurred around 400 North in the Marriott-Slaterville area.
A crash involving a wrong-way driver on Interstate 15 in Weber County early Sunday morning left one person dead and prompted the temporary closure of the freeway.
The wrong-way driver was headed north on I-15 in the southbound lanes in the Riverdale area and made it to around 400 North in the Marriott-Slaterville area before colliding head-on with a southbound fully loaded semitruck, the Utah Department of Public Safety said in a statement. The wrong-way driver was reported to authorities shortly before 3 a.m. on Sunday.
“Both vehicles burst into flames. The driver and passenger of the semi-truck were able to escape the cab of the truck. The driver and single occupant of the wrong-way vehicle is deceased,” the DPS said in a statement.
I-15 remained closed for “a couple of hours” in both directions from 2700 North in Pleasant View to 400 North in Marriott-Slaterville as firefighters battled the blaze. The two occupants from the semitruck were transported from the scene with non-life-threatening injuries.
The Utah Department of Transportation last month announced implementation in some locations of a system to detect wrong-way drivers in an effort to stem a trend of fatal crashes. The system was initially to be implemented at 20 priority locations. Most of the 20 locations are in Salt Lake, Davis and Utah counties with none in Weber County.