A handful of accidents — involving a semitruck, several cars, a passenger van and a cargo load of musical instruments — caused major traffic headaches for skiers and other Wasatch Front travelers Saturday but left just one person critically injured.
The accidents started just after 8.a.m. when a pair of Utah Highway Patrol troopers narrowly missed getting hit by a van that slid out of control on an icy I-80 at Parleys Summit. The officers were at the scene of a rollover accident, when trooper Clay Morgan looked up to see the 15-seat passenger van pulling an 8-foot cargo trailer sliding out of control.
"I looked over at my partner and said, 'Look out,' " Morgan said. "We just ran and hoped we didn't get hit."
The van slid into the median and slammed into the rolled pickup that was lying on its side. The trailer, which was full of musical instruments for the band that was riding in the van, flew through air before landing, narrowly missing the troopers.
Those involved in both accidents suffered only minor injuries, Morgan said. But about five minutes after the van crash, an eastbound Jeep hit the same patch of ice and slid off the highway, rolling five or six times into a ravine. One man in that accident suffered critical injuries and was airlifted to a Salt Lake hospital, Morgan said. The injured man's name was not released.
The combined accidents closed the eastbound lanes of I-80 for about an hour and diverted traffic off the highway at exit 140.
Skiers in Little Cottonwood Canyon waited several hours to get down the mountain after a semitruck lost its brakes.
The driver of the truck could feel his brakes going out and purposely drove into the side of the mountain rather than risk "going off the cliff," Salt Lake County sheriff's deputy Peggy Faulkner said. The accident happened about 12:30 p.m. near the Seven Turns area at approximately 5300 East.
When the truck hit the side of the mountain its trailer swung around into the oncoming lane of traffic hitting another car. The impact of that collision in turn, knocked the car into a second vehicle. The force of that crash sent the second vehicle flying end-over-end down the embankment. The car eventually came to rest on its hood about 40 feet later.
The 31-year-old driver, who was wearing his seat belt, not only managed to get out of the car but then made sure he grabbed all of his ski equipment before hiking back up the embankment to the main road, Faulkner said.
The 42-year-old woman in the first car was taken by ambulance to a local hospital with a minor head injury, Faulkner said. The driver of the semi was not injured.
"Everybody was real lucky," Faulkner said.
The canyon was shut down for a brief time while emergency crews responded to the accident. It took wreckers several hours to remove all of the vehicles involved, creating a long backup of skiers trying to get down the canyon.
E-mail: preavy@desnews.com; jdobner@desnews.com.