SPRINGVILLE -- A newly arrived missionary for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints was hit and killed on a freeway onramp early Friday morning.
Killed was:Wen Ping Shi, 27, Fujin, China.
Utah Highway Patrol Lt. Chris Kramer said Shi, who had left the church's Missionary Training Center in Provo, was walking southbound in the dark on the onramp from U-75 when he was struck by a pickup truck at 1:14 a.m.
Shi was wearing a dark suit, and the driver did not see him walking on the road, Kramer said.
Kramer said since the driver is not being charged, her name is not being released.
"He (Shi) may not have known he was on an onramp. He only arrived in the country on Tuesday," Kramer said.
"He was walking right in the middle of the ramp. That's why we think he must not have realized where he was."
Kramer said the man was pronounced dead at the scene.
He apparently hitchhiked from Provo to the Springville area and was headed to Arizona where he has friends, Kramer said.
In a press release Friday, the church said, "We are saddened to learn that an accident has claimed the life this morning of Elder Wen Ping Shi, a missionary receiving training at the Missionary Training Center in Provo. He had arrived in the MTC on Wednesday, June 7. Elder Shi had been called to serve in the Washington, D.C. North Mission to teach in Mandarin." The release noted that Elder Shi had apparently left the MTC on his own sometime during the night.
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