SUMMIT COUNTY, Utah, Aug. 26, 2019 (Gephardt Daily) — Officials say three members of a paint crew working on Interstate 80 are lucky to be alive after a semi driver failed to stop or go around them as they slowly rolled along the freeway.
According to a Utah Highway Patrol news release, a paint truck was repainting the lane lines on I-80 at about 9:55 p.m. Sunday. The truck was near milepost 147, about a mile east of the I-80/State Route 40 junction.
The paint truck was in the right lane, repainting the dashed center line and the right fog line. It was moving “well below the posted 70 MPH speed limit,” the news release says.
A “crash attenuator” truck, which has a removable barricade at the rear to reduce the force of a crash, was traveling behind the paint truck to provide protection for the paint truck and the two paint operators sitting on the rear of the truck.
Both trucks had their arrow boards and amber construction vehicle lighting activated.
“As the paint crew was moving westbound, a semi with a 53′ box trailer traveling in the right lane came into the area,” the news release says. “For an unknown reason, the semi driver did not slow or move to the left to go around the paint crew.”
The semi slammed into the rear of the attenuator truck at freeway speeds and continued moving forward, sideswiping the paint truck, then going down the embankment on the right shoulder. It finally came to a stop on the frontage road.
The driver of the attenuator truck has significant injuries and was transported by ground ambulance in poor condition, but is expected to survive.
“Fortunately, the attenuator truck provided appropriate protection and no one in the paint truck was injured. Had the attenuator truck not been there, it is likely all three occupants in the paint truck would have been killed in the impact,” the news release says.
Troopers are trying to determine why the semi driver didn’t slow or move over for the paint crew.
