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Infant killed in Herriman crash identified, victims improving in hospital

Posted at 6:32 PM, Apr 10, 2018
and last updated 2018-04-11 13:26:03-04

HERRIMAN, Utah - The infant killed in the Herriman crash has been identified as 5-month-old Alice Skankey of Herriman.

Police said the baby's parents and 2-year-old sibling are improving and have been upgraded to fair condition.

The other victims have been upgraded to fair-serious condition.

The crash took the life of a five-month-old baby and injured five others.

Police said 26-year-old Lawrence Probert, of Kearns, is in custody for the crash that killed  Alice and sent five others to the hospital.

Probert has not been officially charged.

Officers said he was out on parole at the time of the crash and is in with Adult Probation and Parole.

Police say they received a 911 call about Probert driving erratically minutes before the deadly crash, but it was too late.

However, some neighbors like Ami Jo Curtis, blame the intersection.

"We saw just the string of lights. You could see it clear down Mountain View Corridor...We immediately knew it was this intersection," Curtis said.

Curtis lives a few blocks away from the intersection where the crash happened.

"This intersection is probably the deadliest of all the intersections of Mountain View Corridor," she said.

UDOT spokesman John Gleason says since 2010, there have been four serious crashes in the intersection, two of which were deadly.

"Anytime you have a crash like this of this magnitude, we’re going to look at it to see if there is anything else that can be done or needs to be done to improve safety," said Gleason.

While Gleason said UDOT will look into potential changes in the road, he said the intersection meets all safety standards.

"Ninety-four percent are a result of human error and you can’t always engineer for human error," said Gleason.

This sentiment was echoed by Unified Police Department Spokesman, Brian Lohrke.

"It had nothing to do with the design of the road, any light, anything like that. It had to do with the reckless behavior of the driver," said Lohrke.

Police are still determining if Probert was impaired at the time of the crash, but he has been in trouble with the law before.

"He’s got a pretty extensive criminal history involving thefts, drugs, driving under the influence," said Lohrke.

Police said Probert ran a red light Monday evening, hitting two cars. A five-month-old baby died on scene. A three-year-old girl from the same family is in critical condition and the parents are in serious condition.

"We want to give the family some time to cope with this absolute tragedy, but in this particular incident they also have another child hanging on," said Lohrke.

Probert had a 24-year-old female passenger in his truck who was ejected, who was in serious condition. An additional driver of a Dodge Dakota, a 34-year-old man, was also in critical condition.

While the victims fight to survive, police are promising justice.

"Know that we’re going to investigate the heck out of this case," said Lohrke.

Neighbors like Curtis demand that changes to the intersection be made.

"It’s not just on one person when these things happen," said Curtis. "There’s a variety of things that must go on in order for something to continuously happen over and over like this."

Britney Mendel, a friend of the family who was involved in the accident, said the news has been tough for everyone, including her kids.

'I've never seen three life flight helicopters have to land at an accident before, and my kids had to watch it," Mendel said.

Mendel said the baby's parents are loved by many people in the community.

"They're a wonderful young couple just starting out their family," Mendel said. "The community is already forming together and making sure this family is well taken care of."

A GoFundMe has been set up by the family and can be found here.