Trailer did not have lights on prior to fatal crash with family car, witnesses say

Two were killed in a crash with a semi truck south of the Utah, Arizona border on Wednesday night. 

The accident happened on December 29th in Mohave County on southbound Interstate 15 just before 10 p.m. 

According to St. George Utah News, the four wheeler crashed into the back of a semi truck, wedging the car partially beneath the trailer and trapping three occupants – a father and his two children – inside of the vehicle. 

The father was pronounced dead at the scene, and crews worked for half an hour to cut away the top of the vehicle to free the two surviving children, but the 12 year old boy sitting in the passenger seat stopped breathing as he was lifted from the mangled vehicle and was later pronounced dead. The 11 year old girl in the backseat was then transported to a nearby hospital. 

Witnesses to the crash say that the semi truck had pulled off onto the shoulder north of the Black Rock exit near mile marker 27 and then later pulled back onto the interstate at a slow rate of speed when the car crashed into the back. Witnesses also say that the lights on the trailer were not on when the rig pulled back onto the interstate, but by the time the truck driver realized they were off “it was too late.” 

Two other vehicles also narrowly avoided striking the slow-moving semi truck. The truck driver was not injured in the incident.