Woman dies after being hit while walking across I-15 near Willard Bay

WILLARD, Box Elder County — A Canadian woman died Thursday from injuries she received when she was hit by a minivan as she tried to run across I-15.

Patricia Prokopetz, 61, of Hinton, Alberta, and her husband were traveling north on I-15 when they stopped in the emergency lane so the husband could check his blood sugar levels, said Utah Highway Patrol trooper Cameron Roden. The woman decided to take photos of nearby Willard Bay and had made it safely across both northbound and southbound lanes of I-15.

As she prepared to re-cross the freeway, she stopped at the edge of the southbound lanes to wait for a semitrailer traveling in the slow lane, Roden said. After the truck passed, she ran across the interstate and was struck by a minivan that was traveling a short distance behind the truck in the fast lane.

The driver of the van did not have time to react because he did not see the woman until she was in his lane, the trooper said. His vision had been blocked by the truck, just as the vision of the van had been blocked for the pedestrian by the semitrailer.

A medical helicopter transported the woman to Ogden Regional Hospital, where she later died.

— Geoff Liesik