ST. GEORGE — Investigators are working with the Mohave County Attorney’s Office on possible charges following a crash that killed a driver and his 12-year-old son last week. Additional details were also released on the children involved, the boy who died and his younger sister who was trapped in the backseat of the car.
The two-vehicle crash was reported shortly before 10 p.m. MST on Interstate 15 just south of the Utah-Arizona border on Dec. 29, involving a semitractor-trailer and a Ford Mustang that was found smashed underneath the semi.
The driver of the Mustang and his 12-year-old son were killed in the crash, while the driver’s 10-year-old daughter was transported to St. George Regional Hospital with nonlife-threatening injuries.
On Thursday, St. George News spoke to Arizona Department of Public Safety Trooper Thomas Callister, the officer in charge of the scene that night, who said the investigation is still ongoing and could continue for several months.
He also said he’s been in contact with the family of the two children involved in the crash, and provided further details on what transpired in the hours and days following the incident, as well as information on the identity of the two children that was provided to Callister by the children’s mother, Marisol Schott.
Jacob Schott was the 12-year-old boy sitting in the front seat who later died from his injuries, while his younger sister, 10-year-old Nayeli Schott, was in the backseat of the car at the time of the crash. The children, who live in Montana and were visiting their father for the holidays, were on their way to Las Vegas to visit family when the crash took place, Callister said.
Callister said during one of the conversations with the family, he learned that during the 20 minutes it took for the first emergency crews to arrive, Nayeli Schott was knocked unconscious upon impact, but then woke up a minute or so later, only to find she was alone and in the dark as she continued calling out for her brother, Jacob.
Meanwhile, a motorist traveling behind the Mustang pulled over and called 911 to report the crash.
As it turned out, Callister said, the family had stopped at a gas station just before the collision, which is when a bearded man caught the girl’s attention inside the store.
That same man was the motorist who stopped and called 911, Callister said, and his face was the first the girl saw as he approached the scene to check on the occupants. He also remained near the car and continued speaking to the child while emergency crews were en route.
“The family believes that seeing a somehow familiar face during those scary moments really helped her,” Callister said.
Before emergency crews arrived and pulled the girl from the vehicle, Calister said, the girl was comforted by her brother’s voice as he remained trapped and critically injured in the front seat of the car.
“The little girl told me she could hear her brother whispering her name the entire time,” he said.
When crews found Jacob Schott he was initially semiconscious, but as soon as he was lifted out of the car, he stopped breathing, and despite CPR and other life-saving measures that continued for more than 40 minutes, the boy was pronounced dead at the scene.
Callister said the comprehensive investigation is still ongoing, which is standard with any serious traffic collision that results in fatalities, particularly when it involves a commercial vehicle, which are some of the most deadly crashes in which investigators are involved.
According to the preliminary findings, he said, investigators determined there were two primary factors that led to the crash. One, he said, was that the semi entered the roadway without its trailer lights on, a detail that was confirmed by a second witness who was later interviewed by authorities.
And speed was the second factor that contributed to the severity of the crash, he said.
The trooper said the semi driver, who was parked on the shoulder of southbound I-15, pulled into one of the travel lanes going 5-10 mph, while at the same time, the Mustang was heading south at freeway speeds. Without the trailer lights to warn other drivers of the semi’s presence, the Mustang slammed into the back of the semi with enough force to push the car under the trailer.
The force of this was similar to what investigators would see if a passenger car struck a solid object at more than 70 mph, he added.
Callister said that instead of entering the travel lane at such a low speed, the semi driver should have remained on the shoulder long enough to gain speed, which would have reduced the severity of the impact.
He also said what makes these crashes so dangerous is the massive amount of weight involved, as well as the ground clearance and variance in size between the two vehicles.
A loaded semi can weigh as much as 80,000 pounds, which is roughly 20-30 times that of a passenger car, which also means it has 20-30 times more kinetic energy than a car. That is a significant amount of energy that has to dissipate during impact.
The semi’s greater ground clearance was also an issue, as it left enough space for the Mustang to slide underneath it during the collision, which is known as an underride accident.
Any crash involving a commercial vehicle has its own distinctive factors and evidence, as well as dynamics unique to heavy trucks. Moreover, there is also unique digital evidence concerning not only the vehicle’s performance, but also that of the driver when assessing liability.
Callister also said that commercial drivers are held to a higher standard due to their training and the fact that operating a semi is their profession, so any mistakes or errors often result in serious consequences.
Investigators are working with the Mohave County Attorney’s Office to determine the charges that will be filed in the case, which can range from a civil citation to negligent homicide charges, he said, adding that either way, the crash will result in the semi driver losing his commercial driving license.
This report is based on information provided by law enforcement and may not contain the full scope of findings.
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