ST. GEORGE, Utah, Jan. 23, 2024 (Gephardt Daily) — A truck vs. building confrontation in St. George brought the arrest of the driver and the extraction of the truck from the building.
On Tuesday just after 5 a.m. officers were dispatched to a single vehicle versus a building crash at 1010 E Red Hills Parkway, according to St. George police. “It was reported a single vehicle and the entire cab of a truck was inside the building and one male was walking outside the vehicle. When officers arrived, that’s exactly what they found.“
Investigation determined that the 29-year-old driver was traveling eastbound on Red Hills Parkway “when the truck left the roadway, jumped the curb, struck two lava rock boulders, snapped an approximately eight inch in diameter tree in half before striking the building.”
The building suffered significant structural damage, police said, and the St. George Fire Department had to brace the wall prior to removing the truck from the side of the building.
The driver was the sole occupant and after he was checked by ambulance staff for minor facial lacerations he decline medical treatment, police said. No other injuries were reported.
Field sobriety testing was completed on the male and he was ultimately arrested. He was booked into the Purgatory Correctional Facility, the Washington County jail, and faces charges of driving under the influence, second offense in ten years; drug and drug paraphernalia possession; and open alcoholic container in a vehicle. Other likely charges include improper lane travel, driving too fast for existing conditions, refusing a chemical test, and driving on an expired registration and a denied driver license.
“This incredibly unfortunate incident was PREVENTABLE!(sic)” police said. “Driving is a privilege not a right. If you feel different, you drive different.”
