WASHINGTON COUNTY, Utah — Two participants in the St. George Ironman triathlon were allegedly hit by a car during the cycling portion of the competition, and the driver has been arrested on potential felony charges.
Police said the pair of cyclists were hit Saturday just before 11 a.m. on Telegraph Road in Washington City at approximately 3300 East, about eight miles east of downtown St. George.
Both victims suffered serious injuries, including one with a compound fracture on his arm that required a tourniquet. One of the victims was reported to be "agonally breathing," according to the police report.
Witnesses told police that the driver, later identified as 68-year-old Diana Marie Linford, did not obey a flagger on the triathlon's race route before she hit the riders.
Linford admitted that she smoked marijuana that morning, according to police, and two separate evaluations by "drug recognition experts" concluded that she was under the influence of illegal narcotics.
Linford was examined at a local hospital and cleared, then booked into jail on suspicion of "causing an accident with serious bodily injury while under the influence of illegal narcotics" (a third-degree felony) and failing to obey a flagger (class-B misdemeanor). Her bail was set at $10,000.
