T-bone crash in Hildale severely injures 5 youths ejected during crash

Stock photo, St.George News

ST. GEORGE — A T-bone crash in Hildale severely injured five youths, two critically, when the young driver blew through a stop sign Saturday evening and was struck by an SUV.

Shortly after 5 p.m. officers and emergency personnel were dispatched to a two-vehicle crash involving a John Deere Gator utility task vehicle with five juvenile occupants and a black GMC Yukon SUV with three occupants, Hildale-Colorado City Fire Chief Kevin Barlow said.

Due to the nature of the crash, four ambulances and multiple emergency support vehicles were dispatched to the scene.

Upon arrival responders found that all five youths were thrown from the Gator upon impact and suffered significant injuries.

Five of the youths were transported to Dixie Regional Medical Center in St. George; two of them were in critical condition and three in serious condition.

The two injured occupants from the Yukon were also taken by ground transport to the hospital for evaluation and treatment, Barlow said, while the third in the Yukon was uninjured.

The driver of the Gator was heading north on Mulberry Street, which is an unpaved road, Barlow said, and continued through the intersection of Uzona Avenue without stopping at the stop sign when it was struck by the Yukon traveling on Uzona Avenue.

The force of the impact was enough to deploy the airbags in the Yukon, Barlow said, as well eject the unrestrained youths from the Gator.

Chief Mark Askerlund of the Colorado City Marshal’s Office said that officers responded to the crash, “which was a significant collision,” adding that the youths did not have the protection of a vehicle and instead were in a UTV, which definitely added to the severity of the injuries.

The Marshal’s Office is addressing the issue of underage driving and off-road vehicle safety at the present time, he said.

The Hildale-Colorado City Fire Department sent three ambulances as well as additional rescue units while Hurricane Valley Fire District sent one ambulance.

This report is based on statements from law enforcement and other emergency responders and may not contain the full scope of findings.

Email: [email protected]

Twitter: @STGnews

Copyright St. George News, SaintGeorgeUtah.com LLC, 2018, all rights reserved.

Free News Delivery by Email

Would you like to have the day's news stories delivered right to your inbox every evening? Enter your email below to start!

13 Comments

  • Carpe Diem July 15, 2018 at 8:40 am

    Apparently still rather lawless out there in the plyg boondocks.

  • Kilroywashere July 15, 2018 at 9:05 am

    Let’s hope everybody recovers. Almost exactly a year ago to this upcoming week, 2nd day after Pioneer day, I presented to the Santa Clara city council a safety initiative specifically targeting the fact locals in my community were ignoring stop signs completely, and that this behavior had become a norm. We had just had a young person rollover their vehicle around the corner from my residence, in a 25 mph residential zone, which seemed an incredible feat to accomplish, even if you were a professional stunt driver. As a member of the community you have a choice. You can either stand up and do something or ignore the behavior. Some of the locals may not appreciate it, some perhaps are simply resigned to the behavior, and others not caring at all. The main point underlying my safety initiative , on file with the Santa Clara government facility, is that you don’t need to be a prophet to see the catastrophe coming, as it is dictated by mathematical probability if said behavior goes unchallenged and continues. Further safety is about being proactive, not reactive. Lastly since my neighborhood demographic is 70-80% Mormon, I contacted the local Bishop at the time to get the word out. Did it work? If it saves one life or prevents critical injuries- yes. Up to God.

    • Carpe Diem July 15, 2018 at 9:38 am

      I hear ya Kilroy. Just about every day there is an accident article here, usually with someone blatantly ignoring traffic safety. 1/4 mile from our home yesterday we almost got hit by a guy driving a mashed up car – obviously no insurance and no cares…

      Anyway while this accident in Hildale was tragic to the innocent children, it’s been a long point of contention that WACO Sheriff and the State have for too long allowed the fundamentalists to run freely about with their own LE dept, medical, the gambit… While hundreds if not thousands of young girls are molested in polygamist situations. They moved to Texas and all got thrown in prison, what does that tell you? Their multi million dollar YFZ ranch sits confiscated and rotting in the sun, their “Temple” desecrated, Good riddance to that particular bunch. Gave them all a financial bath too, along with the DOZENS of lawsuits that they keep losing, one after the other. Karma has been hitting them pretty hard. And the State (one might also argue the COJCOLDS) gave them enough rope to hang themselves.

      • Real Life July 15, 2018 at 11:03 am

        The FLDS needs to be completely eradicated before there is actual justice to the thousands of children who have been sexually assaulted over the years. The ONLY reason it has not happened yet is because of the “good” book that they carry out their orders from.

        • Carpe Diem July 15, 2018 at 2:24 pm

          Well, they’re all gone from Texas besides what exists behind prison bars.

          One good thing is Warren forbid them from having “relations” any more, don’t know where that stands now, but given enough time that would do the trick. Still see them wearing long sleeves and long dresses out in 110 degree heat. Saw three men this week wearing the ever-baggy hand-me-down pants, boots, long sleeve shirts buying wetsuits and then loading into a dark tinted SUV with Montana plates. (???) Usually they go swimming fully clothed but with often disastrous results. Maybe the wetsuits will save them?

  • Craig July 15, 2018 at 9:35 am

    The article said the airbag deployment in the Yukon caused the kids in the Gator to be ejected. I don’t understand how that could be.

    • Avatar photo Paul Dail July 15, 2018 at 10:17 am

      Craig, thank you for bringing the awkward phrasing of that section to our attention. It has been remedied to more clearly state that the force of the impact was sufficient to cause both the airbag deployment AND eject the youths.

  • comments July 16, 2018 at 11:51 am

    One of the few times we can safely say that an incident had nothing to do with the town being made up of a bunch of book of mormon believing, Joseph Smith worshiping, child-molesting cultists. In a lot of small towns in UT the parents turn their kids loose with these motorized things, so I’d say it isn’t unique to the pedophile mormon culture up there. Little kids really should not be piloting these things, let alone on city streets. It’s always a very sad thing when it’s kids that get severely hurt tho.

    • JPD July 16, 2018 at 3:31 pm

      Welcome back Paul. I see you are as bigoted as ever. How did the stick removal go? You must have decided to keep it.

      • comments July 16, 2018 at 3:58 pm

        Hmm. You don’t like to see your (our) LDS church criticized, but yet you make no attempt to defend it and instead just cry “bigot! bigot!”. Explain to me why you believe our LDS church should be immune from criticism. Think you’re up for it, kiddo?

        • JPD July 16, 2018 at 5:07 pm

          Sure thing pops I mean Paul. You are far from criticizing anything. Your comments are nothing but hate.

          • comments July 16, 2018 at 6:58 pm

            As expected, more childish nonsense from you. give it a rest, kiddo 😉

Leave a Reply

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.