Baby killed, 7 injured in 22-car pileup

A 22-car pileup on I-15 near Beaver killed an infant, injured seven others and shut down a 10-mile stretch of freeway for several hours.

The Utah Highway Patrol said the crashes began about 2:30 p.m. Thursday when a semi and a car were involved in a minor crash. The two vehicles were moving off of the freeway, UHP trooper Cameron Roden said, when a semi approaching them tried to move out of the way.

"Another semi rear-ended that semi and jackknifed," Roden said. "Then there were several cars that got in the middle of all that."

Jess Phillips of Bountiful was driving on I-15 when the crashes started.

"The visibility was really deceiving because it was really bright outside, but it was really snowing," he said.

Phillips said he saw a semi jacknife and hit the brakes on his car, sliding on a patch of ice.

"I could hear cars hitting behind us," he told the Deseret News over a cell phone from the accident scene.

A semitrailer carrying 1,000 gallons of fuel also crashed when it rear-ended another semi. One of the tanks split open, spilling a couple hundred gallons of gasoline, Roden said. Hazardous materials teams were called out to contain the spill.

"We did have several people pinned in their cars," Roden said.

Seven people were taken to area hospitals where they were last reported to be in fair condition. The infant died at the hospital, Roden said.

"It looks like the vehicle the baby was in was rear-ended, which pushed the car seat up into the rest of the vehicle," he said.

I-15 was closed for several hours in both directions. By 5:30 p.m., the northbound lanes were reopened. Southbound I-15 was still closed, and traffic was being diverted on side roads, including U.S. 89.

E-MAIL: bwinslow@desnews.com