Trek tragedy — 2 die when truck hits handcart near Fairview

FAIRVIEW, Sanpete County — Edwin Montell Seely built his first handcart when he was 12 years old.

Decades later he walked 46 days across the U.S. to celebrate the sesquicentennial of the Mormon pioneers' trek from Omaha, Neb., to Utah.

Tuesday, while re-enacting the call to settle Castle Valley by climbing Fairview Canyon, Seely and another participant, 13-year-old Hannah Wagstaff, were hit by a truck and killed.

"All the activities he did, (writing) histories, pageants, all the family reunions, was all to honor our forefathers," said his son, Mark Seely. "Now we experience a part of the hardship they may have experienced. Now we're catching a glimpse of what it may have felt like when they ... lost loved ones on the trail."

The group had gathered in Fairview for what was to be a five-day pioneer re-enactment with nightly firesides that culminated at the Seely family farm in Orangeville/Castle Dale in Emery County.

The group of 12 — a van, then a horse-drawn period wagon and a handcart — had only been on Highway 31 for a few minutes Tuesday when tragedy struck about 8 a.m.

The driver of a Chevy truck told police the early morning sun was blinding and he never saw the pioneer crew climbing the winding canyon road ahead of him.

He crashed into the handcart first, splintering it and killing Wagstaff, who had been behind pushing.

The truck then veered off to the side and struck Seely, who had been standing in the narrow, two-lane road to warn the truck to slow down, said Utah Highway Patrol trooper Cameron Roden.

The driver, from Old Town, Idaho, has not been charged, nor the re-enactment group cited for being in the road, but the case is being investigated and will be sent to the Sanpete County Attorney's Office for review, Roden said.

Four others were injured — Mark Seely's daughter Hannah, 9, was hospitalized in Sanpete Valley Hospital with a broken collar bone, while his son, Jonathan, 7, was flown to Primary Children's Medical Center with minor hip fractures and bruises.

Ben Carter, a family friend from Salt Lake City, was standing by the handcart when it was hit.

"The truck smashed the handcart to pieces," he said, shaking his head. A wooden wheel from the 1856-style handcart hit his kneecap. He knows he's lucky it wasn't worse.

Both families plan to bury their loved ones in simple pine boxes, Mark Seely said, indicative of their appreciation of the simple, back-to-basics way of life.

Wagstaff was a musician and had played a violin solo and duet with her younger sister around a campfire the night before.

Her parents are artists Clay and Rebecca Wagstaff, of Tropic, Garfield County, who specialize in landscape and portrait work, respectively, according to the Wagstaffs' Web site.