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Car hits pedestrian in Taylorsville; victim killed

Posted at 7:34 AM, Dec 29, 2017
and last updated 2017-12-29 19:28:12-05

TAYLORSVILLE, Utah — A 53-year-old man died Friday morning after he was hit by an SUV in Taylorsville.

Police identified the victim as Homero Lara-Chicato.

Unified Police said the incident happened shortly before 7 p.m. on Redwood Road, just south of 6200 South.

A car headed north struck the man and pushed him into a stopped UTA bus, according to police.

"He was hit by a vehicle that was northbound in the center lane, and that apparently knocked him into a UTA bus that was in the outside lane," said Ken Hansen, Unified Police Department. "We have witnesses saying that he may not have been in the crosswalk, and he may have been distracted by using the phone while crossing the street."

A statement from Utah Transit Authority said Lara-Chicato did not get knocked into a UTA bus, nor did a bus strike him.

"UTA police are indicating the pedestrian involved in this morning’s fatal accident in Taylorsville did not strike, nor was struck by, the UTA bus. The bus was stationary and was not moving. According to reports from UTA officers, the impact hurled the pedestrian close to the bus but there was no contact," UTA spokesman Carl Arky wrote in a statement sent to FOX 13.

The victim died after he was transported to a hospital.

Northbound lanes of Redwood Road and eastbound lanes of 6200 South in the area were closed for nearly three hours as authorities investigated the scene.

Authorities say the driver isn’t facing any charges as they continue to investigate.

“There is a lot of work to do on these kinds of accidents because if the pedestrian isn’t in the crosswalk, then you have other issues to deal with,” Det. Hansen said. “There are a lot of pieces to put together before you really know what’s going to happen and that could take weeks.”

Authorities believe a second accident, just south from the location where Lara-Chicato was hit, was likely caused by drivers not paying attention to the slow road conditions.

“It’s typical for people to rubber-neck when they see an accident like this,” Det. Hansen said. “They just really need to pay attention to what’s going on ahead of them because we see from time to time, especially when we have a large accident, we’ll get accidents behind the accident from people not paying attention and then people hitting cars in front of them.”