ST. GEORGE — A UTV crash on Sand Mountain in Washington County left two people with injuries Tuesday, while the Kane County Sheriff’s Office released information on an unrelated ATV crash last month on Cedar Mountain that turned fatal.
Early Tuesday afternoon, a group of four men from Texas rented a four-seat utility terrain vehicle, also commonly called a side-by-side, and took it on the dunes at Sand Mountain in Sand Hollow State Park, Park Manager Jonathan Hunt told St. George News.
The group had been going “a little too fast on uneven terrain” when the UTV hit a small rise in the dunes and started rolling “end-over-end,” Hunt said.
The UTV came to a stop when it crashed into another parked UTV. No one was in the parked UTV at the time, as the occupants had gotten out to help another off-road vehicle that was stuck.
Two of the occupants of the side-by-side, the driver and a passenger in the back, were injured in the crash, Hunt said.
The driver suffered lacerations to one of his arms, while the back seat passenger, a 25-year-old man, slipped out of his seat belt as the UTV rolled and was bounced around until it came to a stop on its top.
Hunt said the groups was lucky the parked UTV had been there or else the 25-year-old may have been ejected if the vehicle had kept rolling.
The 25-year-old man complained of lower back and chest pain. He was taken out of the sand dunes on an ATV by members of the Washington County Sheriff’s Search and Rescue team, who responded to the crash alongside a crew from Hurricane Valley Fire and Rescue.
The 25-year-old, though in pain, appeared to be in stable condition when being taken out of the dunes, Hunt said.
Separate Kane County ATV rollover results in death
The Kane County Sheriff’s Office issued a press release Tuesday afternoon concerning a separate fatal ATV incident that occurred Sept. 11.
The incident took place in the Meadow View Estates subdivision on Cedar Mountain where a man and woman were traveling Rim Road on an ATV. They took a corner too fast and hit a ditch, causing the ATV to roll.
The woman, 40-year-old Amy Joelle Knowlton, was thrown from the ATV and pronounced dead by responding emergency personnel, according to the Sheriff’s Office
The man who was on the ATV with Knowlton was transported to Cedar Hospital in Iron County for medical care.
“It is suspected that alcohol use was a factor in the accident,” the Sheriff’s Office stated, adding that “the accident is still under investigation.”
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