CEDAR CITY — Two separate crashes on state highways in Iron County a few hours apart kept responders busy Tuesday. Utah Highway Patrol said both incidents involved drivers going too fast to negotiate a curve in the road.

The more serious crash happened around 5:45 p.m. on state Route 14 in Cedar Canyon, just below the “S” curve near mile marker 13. It involved a silver Ford Fiesta with an adult male driver and an adult female passenger.

Utah Highway Patrol Sgt. Gary McInelly said the Ford was heading east up the canyon when its driver “failed to negotiate the curve, went off the road and rolled into a tree.”

Both occupants were seriously injured, McInelly said at the scene, noting that he didn’t know the nature nor the extent of either person’s injuries.

The woman in the passenger seat was transported to St. George Regional Hospital via Intermountain Life Flight helicopter, while the man who was driving was taken via ground ambulance to Cedar City Hospital, McInelly said.

As for what is believed to have caused the crash, McInelly said, “The  only thing we’re suspecting at the moment is maybe excessive speed.”

The incident led to the full closure of the roadway for approximately 30-40 minutes while responders assisted the injured patients and prepared them to be transported. After both patients had been taken away from the scene, the roadway was partially reopened to traffic, one direction at a time, on an alternating basis. A tow truck operator later responded to remove the wrecked vehicle, driving away with it shortly after 7 p.m.

In addition to multiple UHP troopers, Cedar City Fire Department personnel, Iron County Sheriff’s deputies and Gold Cross Ambulance crews also responded to the incident.

Semi tips over on SR-20

Meanwhile, a few hours earlier, a semi truck hauling a trailer filled with bottles of Coca-Cola Spiced tipped over and crashed on state Route 20.

Utah Highway Patrol Lt. Clay Allred said that at approximately 2 p.m., the truck was heading eastbound at about mile marker 10.5 when its driver failed to negotiate a curve and tipped over onto its side. 

It appears that the driver had been going too fast for the turn, Allred said, adding that no injuries were reported.

Ladd Brindley, owner of Ladd’s Transport, told Cedar City News just after 8 p.m. that he and his employees were just finishing cleaning up the scene. Workers used a front-end loader to fill a large side-dump trailer with the plastic soda bottles before removing the wrecked semi and its trailer.

Allred noted that traffic was not as seriously impacted in the incident as UHP troopers were able to keep the left-side eastbound lane open much of the time, even though the right lane needed to be closed (the wrecked vehicle ended up next to the right guardrail).

This report is based on statements from law enforcement officials and may not contain the full scope of findings.

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