BOUNTIFUL, Utah — A UTA driver suffered minor injuries after a dump truck lost control and tipped into a bus with passengers Friday morning in Bountiful.
The truck was full of rocks, gravel and mud around 8:30 a.m. when officials say it possibly lost its brakes and tipped while trying to turn from Eaglewood Drive to northbound Orchard Drive.
A woman whose 5-year-old nephew witnessed what happened outside the window of their apartment shared what he saw.
“He was like ‘Yeah, the dump truck went down the hill and it turned and it went sliding into the bus and went boom,’ and I was like, ‘Oh my gosh,” said Kary Weber.
Eight passengers were on the bus at the time of the accident, but not were injured. The driver suffered only minor injuries and was treated on the scene.
“The top part of the dump truck was basically cutting through where the driver was sitting," said Weber.
“The way the dump truck hit, it legit took out the driver’s seat of the bus. And at first we weren’t sure what had happened. And not knowing where the driver was, I honestly at first thought the driver was dead. Just because of how it hit.”
South Davis Metro Fire officials say weather was not a factor in the incident and the truck driver was cited.
Weber turned the accident into a learning opportunity for her own 3-year-old daughter.
“Not necessarily make a positive out of it, but help her learn how to cope with those things when you’re scared I told her at one point, she said ‘Mom, I’m just scared,’ And I’m like, it’s okay to just walk away, you don’t have to stand here and watch this."
She was also thankful everyone was able to walk away from an incident that could have been much worse.
"There’s an elementary school just down the street and it was during school time," said Weber. "The flashers were on for school, there’s kids who walk along this street at times, right here along Orchard and it definitely could have been a lot worse than it was."
"And I’m really grateful it wasn’t.”
