UTAH — A man died early Wednesday after his vehicle became disabled in the travel lane of a construction zone and was struck by a semi-trailer, and both vehicles were forced off the roadway by the collision and then caught on fire.
According to the Utah Highway Patrol, the crash occurred around 12:30 a.m. on I-15 near mile post 170 about 5 miles north of Fillmore when a northbound Honda Civic entered a construction zone where the right lane is closed and traffic must use the left lane.
The Honda drifted left to the edge of the road, and the driver then over-corrected to the right. As the driver steered sharply back to the left, the car began to rotate and head toward the median. The car then left the road, and the driver steered sharply right–causing the car to rotate clockwise and come back toward the travel lanes.
The Honda came to a stop sideways in the left travel lane, and a short time later a semitrailer traveling northbound in the construction zone, “not realizing that the car was disabled in the travel lane, struck the [Honda] in the drivers door.”
The impact sent both vehicles to the right, and they went through a right-of-way fence and stopped on a frontage road, where the vehicles then caught on fire.
The driver of the Honda–identified as 23-year-old Derek J. White of Sammamish, Washington–was pinned in his vehicle and suffered fatal injuries. UHP states the man was wearing a seat belt.
There were no other reports of serious injury.
It was not clear what initially caused White to veer and lose control of the vehicle.
