PROVO CANYON — Slippery, snowy roads contributed to a crash Wednesday that demolished a electronics-laden, expensive, television-station satellite van.

Around 9:30 a.m., a driver for KSL-TV was traveling up U.S. 189 when he hit a patch of black ice, said KSL news director Con Psarras.

The satellite truck slid nearly 100 yards along a guard rail before it tumbled off the side of the road and rolled into a ravine along the Provo River, Psarras said.

The driver was only slightly stuck inside and could have freed himself, but a few witnesses told him not to try to get out and to wait until paramedics came, Psarras said.

The driver was extricated and taken to Utah Valley Regional Medical Center as a precaution, but with no real injuries. He has since been treated and released and is resting at home, Psarras said.

Some parts of the $100,000-plus truck may be salvageable, but the vehicle as a whole is undriveable, he said. It's the station's only satellite truck. But the station has several other microwave trucks, which use microwave, rather than satellite transmissions.

"Our first concern is obviously for the safety of the driver," Psarras said. "(As for the truck), we'll make do without it until we replace it."

— Sara Israelsen-Hartley