ST. GEORGE – A triple-vehicle accident temporarily blocked traffic on River Road in St. George after a driver ran a red light Thursday.
The accident
Officer Chad Pectol was at the scene and said St. George Police responded to the accident at the intersection of River Road and 700 South at 11:50 a.m. after a white jeep traveling north on River Road ran a red light and hit a gold SUV traveling south and making a left turn. A third vehicle was involved in the accident but was “only nicked” compared to damage done to the other two vehicles, Pectol said.
The accident brought traffic to a crawl at the intersection and additional police units were called in to help direct traffic while the scene was cleared.
No injuries were reported in connection with the accident and the driver of the white jeep was cited with a red light violation, Pectol said.
Nancy McCormick, of Hurricane, was passing by on River Road when she recognized one of the individuals involved in the incident and pulled over to check on her. While she regretted seeing her friend’s new vehicle – the white jeep – totaled, she said she was grateful there were no injuries.
“Thank God no one was hurt,” she said.
The accident was cleared by 12:14 p.m. and traffic gradually returned to normal.
Problem intersection?
Officer Derek Lewis, public information officer for the St. George Police Department, said six accidents have been reported at the 700 South and River Road intersection in the last 12 months, and the intersection is not counted as one of the area’s more dangerous areas.
“Anywhere you have a lot of traffic flow you’ll have accidents,” he said. “It just happens.”
Lewis said the more dangerous intersections in St. George are: St. George Boulevard-1000 East and South Main Street-Black Ridge Drive.
Email: mkessler@stgnews.com
Twitter: @MoriKessler
Copyright St. George News, SaintGeorgeUtah.com LLC, 2013, all rights reserved.
The city needs to upgrade the signals there like the new ones with the flashing yellow/solid green arrows. This intersection is one of the busiest in town…
intersections are not dangerous, idiots who run red lights are dangerous. just like blaming the gun for a shooting, the car for drunk driving, or water for drowning.
This is not a problem intersection. The problem is that people are NOT paying attention anymore. Are peoples brains so fried that they can’t drive from one place to another without running a red light, stop sign, etc… Come on people, it’s really not that hard.
Distracted driving a favorite past time…What you want them to care about other peoples safety!…People think the whole world is about them and are very careless.. Go out and watch what goes on with people driving..Truly an eye opener!!
I’d hat to be a pidestriun in eny innersection arond here!
Red light camera do work.
To bad we don’t have leaders that can see where technology is a good thing and use it.
They would rather spend our money on bright and shinning objects such as sports cars for police cars.
We to them are expendable.
So if we bombard people with technology and new laws, we can force them to do good and change behavior. Good luck with that!
This place has some of the worst drivers I have ever seen in my 45 years. It is eclectic and people are angry visibly angry and constantly running red lights and the worst part of it all is a tailgate more than I’ve ever seen! Worse than so cal drivers. FYI it is illegal to use your cell phone and text message while driving. It is illegal in every state I guess except for Utah.