HURRICANE – A multi-vehicle accident at milepost 15 on Interstate 15 occurred at approximatley 8:48 a.m. today causing traffic back log for hours.
A Ford F-150 heading southbound on Interstate 15 crossed through the median and into the northbound travel lanes, Utah Highway Patrol’s Cpl Todd Johnson said. The Ford was broadsided by a Chevy Silverado. The female driver of the Ford was ejected out onto the roadway. A Honda Civic then hit the Ford. Two other vehicles were involved in the crash.
The driver of the Ford F-150 was transported by helicopter to an area hospital. Johnson said that a possible six others were also transported to the hospital by ground.
Utah Department of Public Safety released the following information about the vehicles and persons involved:
Ford F-150 – Driver: Nikkole McDonald, 33, from Hurricane. McDonald was flown to the hospital in St. George. The seat belt in her vehicle was not used.
Chevrolet Silverado – Driver: Barbara A. Perkins, 60, from Mesquite, Nev. Perkins possibly suffered injury but was not transported. Her seat belt was used.
Honda Civic – Driver: Scott Moffitt, 40, from Santa Clara. Moffitt was injured and transported. His seat belt was used.
Ford Flex – Driver: Douglas Fletcher, 69, residence unknown. No injury was reported for Fletcher. His seat belt was used.
Chevrolet (make not given) – Driver: Theresa A. Phillips, 58, from Mesquite, Nev. Phillips possibly suffered injury. She was not transported. Her seat belt was used.
On St. George News Facebook, Glen Foster, posted: “My stepson was in the Hyundai. He is sore but ok. They are checking him out at the hospital just to make sure. They were headed north to join the rest of their rugby team at a tournament.”
Also on St. George News Facebook, Mark Tischner, posted that he was there as the accident happened:
“The F150 merged onto I15 from SR9 southbound. I was driving in the front of my wife in my car and went into the fast lane to let the her merge. My wife did the same. The next thing I saw was the F150 jump into the fast lane behind my wife…? My wife had a feeling she needed to speed up and get over. Both my wife and I saw the same thing in our rear view mirrors. The F150 immediately drifted into the shoulder on the left side and then over corrected twice before crossing the median. My heart sank when we saw the explosion of car parts We thought for sure she was dead. We both pulled over at exit 13 and called 911.”
UPDATED 10:35 a.m. with details of the accident origination and cars involved, per update from Johnson. Photos added courtesy of Utah Highway Patrol.
UPDATED 11:45 a.m. Photos by St. George News photographer Dave Amodt added, providing angle view from the southbound side looking at the northbound. Report via Facebook on one of the injured parties also added at the bottom of the story.
UPDATED 5:31 p.m. to include the Facebook post by Mark Tischner.
UPDATED 8:42 p.m. with descriptions of vehicles and drivers according to DPS information received.
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Copyright St. George News, SaintGeorgeUtah.com LLC, 2012, all rights reserved.
I’ve seen it time and time again, the SR-9 folks do NOT get along well with the I-15 vehicles. As the SR-9 drivers are on the on-ramp chomping at the bit the get on I-15 and kick it up to 8o mph, they put into danger the I-15 vehicles who are just traveling along minding their own business. This area has seen countless accidents that can be attributed to this exact observation. There are also many other wrecks between Exit 13 and Exit 16 going southbound that are the result of SR-9 vehicles disrupting the flow of I-15 traffic. They need to make this south bound on-ramp at Exit 16 much, much longer so these impatient SR-9 folks can quit causing these accidents.
Impatient SR-9 drivers?? Really??!
Where did it say in the article that it was caused by someone entering the freeway?? I am at this interchange daily and what I see is people driving way to slow on the on ramp to be able to get to highway speeds to be able to merge with traffic. Its not oncoming traffics job to get out of the way of merging drivers or having to slow down for merging drivers. Some people in Southern Utah need better driving lessons. I see daily where people are impatient when pulling out into traffic on SR-9 cutting off drivers when there is no one behind them. No place it so important to be at that it is worth risking your life or worse the life of an innocent driver that happens to be on the road at the same time/place .
What UDOT needs to do is put a sign up by the overpass advising people from out of state or people not familiar with the area that SR 9 is becoming a Freeway entrance, and then on the bend put the speed limit sign. To many times people enter the Freeway at 40 mph while the traffic on the Freeway is 75 + mph, a very bad combination. I have not read nor heard that this was the problem this time; but yes people do come onto the freeway slow from SR 9 but take a look at the license plates and a majority of the time it is out of state people and we have snow-birders coming also.
This is a valid point, but…..this comment from one who has lived from coast to coast. Most south Utah drivers are good and are fast. I like both of those. However, the two areas of eternal concern are merging into the freeway and merging into roundabouts. They either sit and wait and wait and then jump out at an inopportune time (often right in front of me) or else they zip in without any regard for those who have the right away (either proceeding on the freeway or already in the traffic circle).
All valid points. Being a driver by trade, what I see most is people that are anxious & not paying attention well enough, but mostly people that act without any consideration of the the consequences of there actions. My prayers to those involved..
It didn’t say it was caused by someone entering the freeway, but since the southbound driver crossed over, it is certainly reasonable that someone southbound had to make a radical move to not hit some slowpoke coming on, overcorrected (and may have been speeding) and lost it, crossing to the northbound side. Whether that was the original cause of this wreck, the point is still valid that a lot of drivers have no clue how to merge.
Are they releasing names?
Jane, we have follow-up inquiries in, UHP won’t release names in cases of critical injuries or worse until notifications have been made to family. We’ll post an update when further details are confirmed. We appreciate your concern.
Oct. 27, 8:42 p.m. The report has been updated to include description of vehicles, identification of drivers, and injuries.
… We were traveling behind the Siverado and Chevrolet on our way to a Rock Hounding trip over by Zion from Mesquite. It was questionable whether we were going to get our Jeep to stop in time. When I got out of our Jeep to get over to the crashed vehicles I could hear Nikkole screaming for help because she was trapped under the Chevrolet with the rear tire crushing her leg. I yelled to people approaching the accident from down the road to hurry that we needed help to lift the vehilce off her. There were maybe 8-10 guys that lifted the truck with the help of a jack my husband got from our Jeep. There was a doctor at the scene that held a jacket to her head where she was also bleeding. … Three people from our group went to St. George in an ambulance and as far as I know were released later.
Ed. elipsis