GUSHER, Uintah County — A Lehi woman traveling to a junior livestock show in Vernal was killed Monday when her car drifted into the path of a semitractor-truck.
Utah Highway Patrol trooper Luke Stradinger said 53-year-old Lorena Hadfield was eastbound on U.S. 40 at about 9:15 a.m. when she crossed into the oncoming lane and collided with a 2000 Freightliner hauling a belly dump filled with dirt.
"I believe she fell asleep, given the evidence and the testimony of the truck driver, who said it didn't even look like she tried to avert," said Stradinger. Hadfield had left Lehi shortly after 6:30 a.m. "She'd been up since early in the morning, and it's quite a drive," he said.
The force of the crash sent Hadfield's 2001 Buick off the highway and onto the shoulder, where it overturned. Hadfield died at the scene. She had to be extricated from her car.
Stradinger said the truck driver, 25-year-old Jay Dee Wood of Roosevelt, was uninjured in the crash. The trooper said Wood couldn't have avoided the crash and no citation will be issued. Hadfield was following her husband, teenage son and a friend to the opening day of the Uintah Basin Junior Livestock Show at Vernal's Western Park Convention Center. Stradinger said when people at the convention center began talking about the crash on U.S. 40 and Hadfield hadn't arrived, her husband went looking for her.
"A friend gave him a ride back on Highway 40 and they ended up at the crash and their fears were confirmed," the trooper said.