SOUTH SALT LAKE, Utah, Dec. 28, 2019 (Gephardt Daily) — Police officials have released the name of the 67-year-old man who was fatally struck by a car Friday night as he attempted to cross 3300 South while not in a crosswalk.
He has been identified as Duane Nebeker, of Salt Lake City. He was a resident at the South Salt Lake Men’s Resource Center, at 3380 S. 1000 West.
Nebeker was halfway across 3300 South, near 1000 West, when he was hit by a passenger car, said Executive Officer Gary Keller, with the South Salt Lake Police Department.
Nebeker was transported to a local hospital, where he was pronounced deceased.
The fatal accident was the second auto-pedestrian crash just on Friday, and the fourth auto-ped incident in the area since late November. Still, people were crossing in the middle of the block on Saturday, despite warnings from the police and the staff at the resource center shelter.
The incident earlier Friday happened at about 6:30 a.m. near the Trax line, Keller said. The 29-year-old person in that case was crossing at 200 West and 3200 South and was hit by a westbound pickup truck. He was transported to the hospital with a possible broken leg and cuts to the head.
An auto-pedestrian crash also occurred on Christmas Day at about 10 p.m., as a man in a wheelchair was pushing himself down the middle of the street at 300 West and 3400 South and was struck by a pickup truck. Keller said the man is still in the hospital in critical condition.
On Nov. 26, there was a fatal auto-pedestrian crash in the middle of the block at about 950 W. 3300 South.
Keller said it was never expected that people would be crossing in the middle of the block when there’s a traffic light and crosswalk just half a block away.
The police are working with the resource center to make the residents aware of the very real risk they’re taking by not crossing at the light.
Keller said officers also will be cracking down and enforcing pedestrian traffic laws, citing any jaywalkers all along 3300 South, because “it’s getting out of control.”
