EPHRAIM—The victim in a dramatic accident about a mile north of Ephraim last week was in good condition at Utah Valley Regional Medical Center Monday and scheduled to be released within a couple of days.
The accident, in which a northbound dump truck crossed the center line about a mile north of Ephraim and collided with a southbound Toyota Corolla, caused a backup from Pigeon Hollow Junction to Ephraim last Monday, Nov. 22 from about 4:30 to 6 p.m.
Other than the Nov. 22 accident, the Thanksgiving weekend was a quiet one on Sanpete County roads, with just two collisions with deer reported on U.S. 89, according to the Sanpete County Sheriff’s Office.
According to Sgt. Cameron Roden of the Utah Highway Patrol, the Nov 22 accident occurred when the dump truck approached several cars stopped on the east side of U.S. 89. The car at the head of the line was attempting to make a turn off the highway.
The truck was unable to stop in time, swerved off the east side of the road, then overcorrected and swerved into the southbound lane, where it collided with the Toyota, which was driven by Matt Call, 36, of Manti.
Call’s vehicle rolled three times and came to rest upright on the west side of U.S. 89. The dump truck also went off the road, where the container portion of the truck tipped over on the hood of the Toyota, just a foot or two from the steering wheel. The dump truck was empty at the time.
Ephraim firefighters had to cut off the top of the vehicle to extricate Call from the car. He sustained a skull fracture, broken clavicle, broken ribs and a broken hip, among other injuries. He was Lifeflighted from the scene. But he remained conscious through the whole ordeal.
The driver of the dump truck, Nathan Holyoak of Spring City, was not injured. According to Roden, he was cited for unsafe lane travel.
Call said a Utah Highway Patrol trooper who had been at the scene told him was lucky to be alive. The officer said he he could have been killed from the initial impact, from his car rolling or from the dump truck landing on top of his car.
Jordan Shand of Manti said he was caught in the traffic backup about 5 p.m. about a half mile north of the accident. “The whole road between Walmart and where it happened was lit up” with emergency vehicles, he said. He said it took him an hour and 40 minutes to get to Manti.
Call was driving home from his job as a therapist at Oxbow Academy in Mt. Pleasant when the accident happened. He and his wife, Marci, have a girl and a boy, ages 6 and 2, and a new baby, 4 months old.
