UHP: Several crashes on I-15 resulted in major traffic delays Friday night

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IRON COUNTY — Interstate 15 in Iron County was the site of several vehicle crashes Friday evening, which led to significant traffic delays.

Utah Highway Patrol Sgt. Bambi Baie said I-15 traffic had been heavy throughout the day due to the holiday weekend.

“Southbound traffic from probably about 10 in the morning was extremely heavy, bumper to bumper,” she said.

The first reported crash was a single vehicle rollover shortly after 4 p.m. near mile marker 41, Baie said, adding that the resulting backup from that crash led to a three-car collision near mile marker 44.

“Then, we had a four-car crash northbound at 74 near Parowan,” Baie said, adding that that crash happened around 6 p.m. and was unrelated to the others on the southbound side.

A short time later, a non-injury crash was reported on southbound I-15 near mile marker 51, which was followed by a three-car crash at mile marker 53 and another two-car collision at mile marker 54, Baie said, adding that the final crash happened shortly after 8 p.m.

“We had six accidents in just a few hours,” she said, adding that more than a dozen vehicles were involved but only minor injuries were reported.

Baie said that just one person was transported, a female patient was who was taken to the hospital for evaluation following the three-car crash at mile marker 53.

“Most of them were at relatively low speeds and everybody was wearing seatbelts, thank heavens,” Baie said.

Although at least one lane of the interstate was kept open at each crash scene, the sheer volume of traffic led to gridlock conditions, with cars almost at a standstill.

“Due to the heavy traffic, it was already slowed dramatically, but then due to people looking and taking pictures of the accidents, it slowed it down even more,” Baie said.

“There were some really bad delays,” she added. “I couldn’t even guess at how long people actually sat there, because we were dealing with everything else, but it was very long.”

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