Witness in I-80 crash is located

The Utah Highway Patrol believes it has found the driver of a white pickup truck whom it was looking for in connection with a fiery crash over the weekend that left one man dead.

The UHP was looking for the driver of a "dirty white pickup" that witnesses say might have been a contributing factor in the crash. Witnesses to the accident that closed I-80 for about four hours Saturday said the white pickup might have cut off a Dodge Dakota involved in the crash and did not stop at the scene.

UHP Sgt. Jeff Nigbur said that after all the media exposure generated by the crash, a woman from Salt Lake City thought it might have been her father's truck that police were looking for.

She confronted her father, a Salt Lake man in his 60s, and he admitted he was in the area of the crash at the time, Nigbur said.

The man and his daughter then met with troopers in Tooele County and brought the truck so that investigators could take pictures of it. "He told them he saw the dust, saw the explosion and did give us an explanation as to why he left," Nigbur said.

The sergeant declined to discuss the man's reasons for leaving but said investigators are in the process of having witnesses identify his truck through the pictures that were taken.

No arrests have been made, and Nigbur said there are still "a lot of unanswered questions."

About 11 a.m. Saturday, a FedEx semitrailer pulling three trailers was traveling west and collided head-on with an eastbound Dodge Dakota driven by Mark Neilson of Magna, according to the UHP.

Neilson was killed instantly. The crash caused both vehicles to catch fire and halted traffic in both directions.

The FedEx truck was transporting an unknown amount of ammunition, some of which discharged.

During the interview with the driver of the old pickup, "he was very confident that the Dodge Dakota was driving at a very high rate of speed," Nigbur said.

Whether that is true, Nigbur said, is still under investigation, but the initial reports he received indicated that the Dodge might have been driving erratically.

Once the investigation is complete, UHP will turn the evidence over to the Tooele County attorney, who will decide if any charges will be filed, Nigbur said.

The driver of the semitrailer was flown to University Hospital in critical condition. Nigbur did not have any updated information on that driver but said that the last UHP heard on Saturday was that he was expected to survive.

E-Mail: ethomas@desnews.com