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HEBER CITY – Court documents identify the driver of a dump truck involved in a "horrible" accident that killed six men on US Highway 40 near Jordanelle Reservoir on Friday.
Jamie Don Mckenzie, 41, was arrested and detained on remand in Wasatch County Jail for six counts of motor vehicle homicide, two counts of driving while in state. drunk with serious injury, reckless driving, open container of alcohol in a vehicle on the road, dangerous journey and speed, according to prison records.
Mckenzie was driving a dump truck west on the highway when the truck passed through a median and crashed onto a pickup truck driving in the other direction, according to the records of the jail.
The dump truck then landed on the pickup after the collision.
The van driver, 62-year-old Efrain Cardenas, died in the accident, according to the sergeant of Utah's road patrol. Lawrence Hopper. Five other men in the van also died on the scene. Their wounds were so severe that the authorities are still trying to determine their identity, according to prison records.
"I think that's horrible is the best way to say it," Hopper said in describing the scene. "There is little left of this van."
Shortly after the initial collision, a jeep trying to avoid the accident lost control of its road and rolled, stopping in an embankment about 20 meters from the dump truck.
Dallas McCullough and his mother were inside the jeep and were transported to Park City Hospital with non-life-threatening injuries, UHP officials said. .
"I'm really upset," McCullough said of his home in Salt Lake on Saturday afternoon. "I went out and the car was covered with blood. I do not know how we survived. "
McCullough said the roof of the jeep had been destroyed and the windows had been broken.
"We were the only things in the car that were not destroyed," she said. "It's unfair, for example, I wake up and my family is fine, I'm fine and my mother is fine." (The families of the men) are all waking up with one less family member. "
Hopper said officials believe that alcohol could have been a factor in the crash after discovering open alcohol cans and prescription pills inside the dump truck tilting. An on-site witness told the soldiers that they saw the dump truck swinging through the aisles at a speed of about 70 to 75 mph, before crossing the median, according to the prison records.
Mckenzie was taken to a hospital for toxicology testing, but did not cooperate with the authorities there, according to the prison records. He told the hospital soldiers that he knew that he had been an accident victim, but he did not remember the details.
The soldier questioning Mckenzie said that he could smell an odor of alcohol in his breathing, according to the prison records. McKenzie told the officials that he had been drinking whiskey the night before, but that he had not drank anything that day.
Mckenzie was booked at Wasatch County Jail after he left the hospital.
contributing: Alex Cabrero, KSL TV
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