MURRAY, Utah, Sept. 29, 2016 (Gephardt Daily) — A 54-year-old man is dead after being hit by a car on an overpass in Murray on Wednesday night.
He has been identified by police as Juan Manuel Puga-Hernandez.
Unified Police Department Lt. Brian Lohrke said the auto-pedestrian accident occurred at 3900 S. 350 West just before 10 p.m.
A female driver in a gold Mazda Protege was traveling eastbound on 3900 South, Lohrke said, and the pedestrian was crossing south to north.
“As she was driving along, a pedestrian started crossing the street in a non-crosswalk area, she clipped him on the side of her car, flipped him on end right on the ground,” Lohrke said. “She stopped right away, and started rendering medical aid and screaming for help.
“Witnesses stopped, but nobody had a cell phone at the time, so the driver left for a little bit, then came back to the scene.”
Puga-Hernandez was transported to the hospital but subsequently passed away from his injuries.
A multi-jurisdictional Crash Analysis Reconstruction Team (CART) was on scene to investigate and reconstruct the incident.
Lohrke said the accident happened on a dark stretch of road, and if someone were crossing the road in a non-crosswalk, they would be hard to see.
It is not known at this time whether any factors such as speed or impairment contributed to the incident.
Gephardt Daily will have more on this developing story as information becomes available.
