Investigators want phone records in death of Payson construction worker

SALT LAKE CITY — Investigators looking into the death of a construction worker who was hit by a vehicle in October want to know if a driver might have been distracted by his cell phone.

Brayden Beddoes, 20, of Payson, was working in a construction zone on I-215 on Oct. 25, 2009, when he was struck by a pickup truck traveling at a high rate of speed. A witness followed the pickup, wrote down the license-plate number and gave it to police the next day.

An investigator from the Utah Highway Patrol contacted Michael Todd Brinkman, 49. He told the trooper that he had hit something in the construction zone and that it was possibly a barrel.

"He also indicated that he had felt sick and had possibly lost control of his vehicle for that reason," a search warrant released this week states.

Brinkman was arrested and charged in December with four misdemeanors, the most serious being failure to remain at the scene of an accident, according to Utah State Court records.

The case was dismissed, however, just two days later.

In a search warrant signed Dec. 29, investigators now want to check Brinkman's cell phone to find out where the phone was at the time of the accident and whether any text messages were sent or received during that time.

"This information, including texts and call logs, will show us where Brinkman was prior to, at the time of and subsequent to the collision," the warrant states.

— Pat Reavy