TOOELE, Utah — A chain reaction involving a semi-truck and multiple cars on Interstate 80 in Tooele resulted in critical injuries for two people and highway closures for hours Monday night.
The crash happened just after 7 p.m. at mile marker 80 in the eastbound lanes of the highway.
Utah Highway Patrol reported the entire incident was triggered when a white passenger car that pulled over to the right shoulder of the highway due to a dead battery.
A black truck made a U-turn on the highway to jump-start the stranded car and while turning around, a passenger car crashed into the side of the truck, T-boning it.
The two passengers inside the truck were not injured while the driver in the oncoming passenger car had "bravo," or non-life-threatening injuries.
Then, another passenger car with three people inside saw the crash and pulled over on the shoulder to help check for injuries as one of the individuals was a doctor, UHP said.
While they were outside the vehicle helping to respond to the crash, a semi-truck went through the area, crashing into the black truck, pushing it into one of the other vehicles and two pedestrians.
Both pedestrians were flown via medical helicopter to the hospital in critical condition, UHP stated.
Lanes of I-80 were closed for several hours Monday night as officials investigated and cleaned up the crash that involved multiple vehicles. Hazmat was also called to the scene to clean up fuel that the semi-truck was carrying.
