Highway collision near Mesquite leaves 2 with severe injuries

A high-speed collision on southbound I-15 near Mesquite, Nev., resulted in two men from California being taken to hospitals in Utah and Nevada with serious injuries, Mohave County, Arizona, Oct. 16, 2018 | Photo courtesy of the Arizona Department of Public Safety, St. George News

ST. GEORGE  An early-morning crash Tuesday on Interstate 15 just north of Mesquite, Nevada, resulted in two California men being taken to the hospital with severe injuries.

A high-speed collision on southbound I-15 near Mesquite, Nev., resulted in two men from California being taken to hospitals in Utah and Nevada with serious injuries, Mohave County, Arizona, Oct. 16, 2018 | Photo courtesy of the Arizona Department of Public Safety, St. George News

At around 1:30 a.m. MST, a 2014 Mazda M6 rear-ended a 2014 Toyota Tundra pickup truck on southbound I-15 at milepost 4 in Arizona, Sgt. John Bottoms with the Arizona Department of Public Safety said.

Two men from Carpinteria, California were in the Toyota and were returning home after a hunting trip in Utah, he said, when the Mazda, driven by a 21-year-old St. George woman, rear-ended the pickup at high speed.

One witness told Bottoms that they estimated the Mazda passed them going 100 mph or more.

The impact caused the Toyota’s driver to lose control of the vehicle, resulting in it rolling, Bottoms said.

When he arrived at the scene, Bottoms said he found assorted body parts on the road that turned out to be from the deer and elk the hunters had bagged in Utah.

One of the men was flown by Mercy Air to Dixie Regional Medical Center in St. George while the other was taken by ambulance to Mesa View Hospital in Mesquite, then taken to University Medical Center in Las Vegas.

Both men were listed in critical condition with injuries that included fractured ribs and vertebrae and collapsed lungs, Bottoms said.

The driver of the Mazda was taken to DRMC by the Mesquite Fire Department where she was treated for minor injuries and released.

In addition to high speed, impairment involving drugs or alcohol is also believed to be a possible factor in the crash, Bottoms said.

The Mazda driver has yet to be given a citation as authorities are waiting on toxicology results. If the results are clean, the woman will be cited for driving too fast to avoid a collision, Bottoms said. If the results come back positive, she will be given a citation for DUI.

Southbound I-15 in the area of the crash was blocked from 1:30 a.m. to around 2:30 a.m. as the Mercy Air medical helicopter landed and took off. After that, a single lane was opened until the roadway was cleared.

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Twitter: @MoriKessler

Copyright St. George News, SaintGeorgeUtah.com LLC, 2018, all rights reserved.

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3 Comments

  • Carpe Diem October 17, 2018 at 7:02 am

    That’s just crazy, the car damage looks like she hit a wall, but the truck was going so fast it almost disintegrated when it crashed.

  • utahdiablo October 17, 2018 at 8:53 pm

    We all need much more NHP, AHP & UHP out there as people are driving just crazy in the Gorge and the Semi drivers too…

  • J.Justice October 18, 2018 at 12:15 am

    This accident was not caused by the men driving the truck. It was caused by an irresponsible, very likely impaired woman who was driving her car at speeds of up to 100 mph, according to witnesses, and then proceeded to crash her car into the truck causing the truck to flip over and roll. The two men were just trying to make their way home to their families and now at least one of those men is fighting possible paralysis and his family is facing enormous medical bills and can only thank God he is still alive! This young woman was acting with reckless disregard for anyone’s safety and is 100% responsible for changing the lives of these other people and their families…forever. IF the physical injuries EVER completely heal, the most critically injured of the two men will spend months and months trying to recover enough to simply be able to sit up or walk again. How in the world was this woman not even issued a citation yet? It is an outrage to further read that she will only be cited for driving too fast to avoid a collision unless she is cited for a D.U.I. pending toxicology reports. This woman should have been, not only cited for excessive speed that RESULTED IN A COLLISION CAUSING GREAT BODILY INJURY to those two INNOCENT men, and could have easily resulted in DEATH, but WHEN the results of the Toxicology Test come back showing she was IMPAIRED as well, they should file ADDITIONAL CHARGES OF FELONY D.U.I., FELONY RECKLESS DRIVING WITH WANTON DISREGARD FOR SAFETY and whatever other charges they can come up with to hold this woman responsible for the horrifying damage her “good time” has, IN FACT, ALREADY caused. She should lose her license immediately and be held accountable, not allowed to go home with a band aid.

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