WEST VALLEY CITY, Utah, Jan. 18, 2017 (Gephardt Daily) — A 17-year-old girl driving a car that collided with a street sweeper Wednesday afternoon had to be extricated from her vehicle.
“At about 2:15 this afternoon we received a report of a pretty significant crash,” Lt. Jeff Conger, West Valley Police Department, said of the crash, at 6200 West and 5400 South.
“The initial information we received was that a young girl was pinned in a car. When we arrived with (the) fire (department), there was a 17-year-old female. She was pinned in a car. At first, we thought it was going to be extensive injuries. She had to be extricated from the car.”
Fire department officials cut away parts of the red Ford Focus to free the teenager. It took about 20 minutes, Conger said.
“Once they pulled her out of the car, it looked like her injuries were much less severe, so she was transported by ambulance instead of by helicopter, which we already had on the scene,” Conger said. “She was transported in stable condition to the IMC (Intermountain Medical Center) hospital.
“We’re not sure what led to the accident because we need to talk to her. There are no skid marks to really tell the speed she was going, but we think it is probably normal street speeds, which at this location would be 40 to 45 mph.”
Conger said there is no indication so far that drugs, alcohol or texting played a role in the accident.
“There’s a lot of dust blown up by the street sweeper, and maybe she didn’t notice what was going on,” he said.
“Whenever there’s a situation where you can’t see, and you’re not sure what’s going on when you’re driving, it’s best just to slow down, or stop even, if you can’t see, to make sure you’re not going to run into something.”
West Valley police closed 5400 West from Mountain View Corridor to 6200 West during cleanup, but the road was re-opened completely by 4:30 p.m.
The vehicle that is pitchers is a Ford Escape not a Ford Focus which was stated in the article.