ST. GEORGE — Utah Highway Patrol released the name of the driver killed in the head-on crash on state Route 59 near Hurricane Saturday afternoon.
Melody Jessop Young, 46, of Colorado City, Arizona, died in the crash reported shortly after 4:30 p.m. near mile marker 18 involving a red 2002 Ford F-250 pickup truck pulling a flatbed double-axle trailer and a gray 2017 Ford Fiesta driven by Young, Utah Highway Patrol Trooper Grant Hintze told St. George News Saturday.
Read more: Head-on collision near Hurricane leaves 1 dead, 1 injured
The pickup truck was driven by an 18-year-old man who sustained a possible fracture to his leg or ankle in the collision and was transported to Dixie Regional Medical Center by ambulance where he was treated and later released.
At the time of the crash, the pickup truck was heading east on SR-59 when there was a possible equipment malfunction with the truck’s front driver’s side tire that “may have lost its tread, which caused the driver to lose control of the vehicle that veered across the center line into oncoming traffic,” Hintze said.
The pickup struck the westbound Focus head-on, which likely killed Young instantly.
“Both vehicles were going highway speeds, so when they hit it was such a violent impact that neither the airbags or the seat belt could have saved the woman in the Focus,” Hintze said.
Hintze added that the findings are preliminary, as the fatal crash investigation is ongoing.
St. George News reporter Mikayla Shoup contributed to this report.
This report is based on statements from police or other responders and may not contain the full scope of findings.
Click on photo to enlarge it, then use your left-right arrow keys to cycle through the gallery.
A Ford F-250 pickup truck crashes into an embankment after the trailer separates during a head-on crash on SR-59, Washington County, Utah, Nov. 17, 2018 | Photo courtesy of the Utah Highway Patrol, St. George News. A Ford F-250 pickup truck crashes into an embankment after the trailer separates during a head-on crash on SR-59, Washington County, Utah, Nov. 17, 2018 | Photo courtesy of the Utah Highway Patrol, St. George News A Ford F-250 pickup truck and trailer is on the side of SR-59 after a head-on crash, Washington County, Utah, Nov. 17, 2018 | Photo courtesy of the Utah Highway Patrol, St. George News A Ford Fiesta is severely damaged in a head-on crash on SR-59 that killed a driver, Washington County, Utah, Nov. 17, 2018 | Photo courtesy of the Utah Highway Patrol, St. George News
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Excuse me, what’s an 18 yo kid doing, driving a work truck and huge trailer? This appears to be polygamy in action. Rack up another tragedy to that town, appears she belonged to it as well, going by the middle name.
Wow, we’re making a lot of assumptions here. If an 18 year old is too young to drive that rig, what then would be a proper age? Also, not everyone who drives highway 59 lives in Colorado City or Hildale. I drove it last week from St George to the Grand Canyon.
Yes, the fatality was from Colorado City, I’ll give you that.
The woman was a Jessop and yes from Colorado City. Read “Escape”, by Caroline Jessop… her ex husband Frederick Merril Jessop did prison time in Texas… Paroled to SLC a few years ago.
The kid? While legally old enough, he likely has only an 8th grade education if he is indeed from the area. The plygs are famous for putting the kids to work as children, and operating equipment at an early age as you might know. It’s not your average job around town that’s going to have an 18 yo driving a large PU towing a heavy trailer like that. I travel that road on occasion as well and try to keep on my toes, it’s a bit of a hairy stretch of highway.
The usual gross generalizations and typical ignorant comments.
“he likely has only an 8th-grade education” “it’s not your average blah blah blah…”
Who on Earth is letting this drivel get through?
Never mind that “the kid” as you call him probably feels horrible that he may be responsible for someone dying in a horrible ACCIDENT. An accident. Not a purpose. And you sit there in your easy chair and rip on this “kid” who you don’t even know and by your tone, you wouldn’t care to know someone like him anyhow. Holy crap, man… you really need to step back and find some empathy.
BTW Iceplant I actually DO KNOW several ex-FLDS and Kingston boys, and I DO have empathy for them! IT’S THE FLDS CULT that is the problem here. The kids are commanded to quit school and start working straight away. (Or worse if Warren had an eye for a girl) This kid, if he was FLDS, was likely not getting paid much… if anything. (As I have heard personal testimony about) Tragedy is an annual affair with the FLDS, but I also blame Utah State for letting it roll so badly for so long.
Don’t worry, if you don’t know how they can muck things up, just watch them butcher Prop 2. On one hand the Religiouslature looks the other way, on the other hand they are down your throat.
I don’t need a lesson on the FLDS from the likes of you. You think you’re the only one around here with experience out in Colorado City? Or are you some bonified expert on the FLDS culture? I think not.
You make really gross assumptions based on prevailing myths attached to the people out there at Short Creek. Nobody disputes what the FLDS have done. But that’s not the issue here and not up for debate.
You have a REAL hard time sticking to the subject.
You don’t know either of the people involved in this accident. Someone died and someone else’s life is probably in shambles. I would have lost my mind if I had been in an accident at 18 where someone else had died and I may have been responsible. Imagine bearing a burden like that at such an early age.
Talk about not understanding the human condition. You simply gloss over facts and pigeonhole an entire group of people into your version of reality and call it good. Sad.
Carpe, the “kid” was 18. Where I come from, that is a legal age to drive.
DB, you drove on 59, as I have many times, so we obviously have multiple wives. 😉
“Carpe, the “kid” was 18. Where I come from, that is a legal age to drive.”
What could possibly go wrong?
sad situation
Wash, rinse, repeat, that part of the State has one crazy lawsuit, underage marriage, rearranged conjugal configuration and tragedy after another.
You really seem to have a problem with empathy. Why is that?
Show some respect.
Respect for child molesters / abusers? What planet were you raised on? You realize, even the women are involved… they handed their little girls over to Warren Jeffs for his pleasure. Then he recorded his “adventures”. Why do you think they threw him and a dozen others in prison? Have some empathy for the children growing up in that cult! They should have been disbanded decades ago. Finally, they are imploding amongst several lawsuits taking them financially limb from limb. The abuse hasn’t completely stopped however. There are other compounds where FLDS kids are still held virtual prisoner. But you don’t care.
You’re disgusting. This is about a car accident. NOT the FLDS church or what they’ve done. You seem to have some sick fetish for going off on tangents about the FLDS that aren’t even related to the very topic you’re posting under.
Are your priorities always this out of whack? Do you ever stop and look at what you type BEFORE you press the ‘post comment’ button? Come on, man. Get a clue.
Well Carpe Diem, you have successfully trolled a bunch of people. You frustrated them, you made them mad, you hurt them. Good job! Being passive aggressive is fun right? Even when people die, it’s a great opportunity for you to jump in and get a little dopamine squirt when people fight with you. I will not read your reply, so don’t bother. No one will, because your opinions don’t exist, and when you die, you will have already been forgotten.
Just a side note here, they say it was likely a front tire failure. That trailer is a tire hauler.
Yet it was deadheading… suppose it was used multipurpose, ie: construction. I think I see some tread on the tire that supposedly failed… the rim is bent… there is a big chunk taken out of it but that tire was in the impact zone… suppose that hypothesis would hold if there was a trail of rubber a ways back.
I just love all the keyboard detectives on this site. All the same people, all the time with to much time on their hands assuming everything bad. Trigger words for them are, Jessop, Colorado City, 18-year-old man. Sad state affairs we are living in.
LOL…really dont you love how all these wanna be Sherlock Holmes are never there when all this happens. and yet they know more about it than all the law enforcement that are out there investigating all these accidents.
IKR? The article says the tire “May have lost it’s tread” and then there is a picture… with the tire with tread on it.
Well that’s simply elementary my dear Watson
Key words “May have lost it’s tread” … I can tell you if you pick up a plug kit to get home out on the trail and are on a highway at speed that tire will blow. IT’S A PATCH TO GET YOU TO A TIE SHOP. At low speed. Not many people know that.
I guess I look at things differently. What I got out of this article is one person lost her life and another will probably remember the tragedy for the rest of his. Life is fragile and can end in a heartbeat…….so cherish it as well as your loved ones……..no matter how old you are, whatever your beliefs and wherever you may live.
Pa Troit, Boy, your so right. This was a tragedy and it was a shame that the comments/reply section got completely off-track.
Pa Triot and Mike P….. Amen and God bless