Rollover kills oil field worker

ROOSEVELT — A crash early Wednesday morning killed the life of a 23-year-old oil field worker.

Heath Mounga of Vernal died when the work truck he was a passenger in rolled after driving off State Route 88 about six miles south of the junction with Highway 40.

Utah Highway Patrol Trooper Rex Olsen said 36-year-old Joseph Serfoss of Vernal was driving the truck, owned by Weatherford TRS, when the vehicle drifted off the right side of the road. Olsen said the driver then overcorrected and the truck went off the left side of the road before rolling about 5 a.m.

Investigators believe Serfoss fell asleep at the wheel.

Serfoss and another passenger, 30-year-old Stephen Torres of Vernal, escaped the crash with minor injuries. Mounga was dead at the scene. He was not wearing a seat belt, Olsen said.

The crash forced the closure of State Route 88 — a main artery into Uintah County's southern oil and gas fields — for almost four hours.