Practice News Story 11: Accident

Nine Die After USU Van Rolls in I-84

Posted: 7:19 p.m., MST, April 18, 2007

TREMONTON Utah- At approximately 4 p.m. this afternoon a Utah State University van was involved in an accident west of Tremonton on a stretch of Interstate 84 that killed seven of the eleven passengers inside. The vans’ left rear tire exploded which caused the van to swerve violently and then roll down the embankment ejecting all the passengers. The van was carrying ten male students and one professor, Evan Parker, who was driving at the time of the accident. The four men who were still alive after the accident were taken to McKay Dee, Ogden Regional, and Brigham City Community Hospital, two have died since.

Kyle Holden had been accompanying the group the entire day as they toured a combine at Greenline Implements, a farm supply store in Tremonton. The students were all from the College of Agriculture at USU, and Even Parker was their professor of agricultural systems. Holden was passing the van at around 81 miles per hour, and made eye contact with Parker moments before the tire blew, he saw Parker try desperately to regain control, but the van turned violently and began to roll. Holden was the first on the scene and attended to those still alive, he later said, “I’ve never experienced anything like this.” Jennie Smith was behind the USU van when the tire blew and called 911 after witnessing the van crash. “I saw bodies in the air … they were three times the height of the van.”

Lt. Ed Michaud and trooper Jason Jensen drove up on the scene moments after the crash and called for emergency services. Michaud said, “bodies were all over the place … it looks as if no one was wearing their seatbelts.” Jensen said after eight years on the force that, “we don’t see this.” They both began to attend to the victims, focusing on the remaining four that were still alive. Emergency services arrives ten minutes later and took two by helicopter to McKay Dee, and Ogden Regional, they are both in critical condition. The remaining two were taken by ambulance to Brigham City where they later died. The President of Utah State University Stan L. Albrecht said that today’s accident was a “tragedy for our institution.”