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Employee dies after van crashes into a business

Posted at 7:41 PM, Jan 16, 2023
and last updated 2023-01-17 00:09:29-05

TOOELE, UTAH — A woman died on Monday after she was pinned by a minivan that crashed through a business, also injuring another employee inside.

The crash happened in Tooele, Utah just outside of Salt Lake City. The business is "Ensign Engineering and Land Survey." The crash happened just after 11:30 a.m. local time when the driver of a minivan was seen driving northbound in the southbound lanes of a busy street.

A female employee was pinned at her desk at the front of the store in the accident. First responders tried to save the woman, but she died soon after from her injuries.

Tooele Building Crash

A male employee was taken to a local hospital, but officials did not immediately give any other updates on his condition.

Police said the male driver of the minivan was allegedly heading northbound in the southbound lanes on the city's Main Street before the driver went over a curb and into the storefront. The driver was also hospitalized and his condition wasn't immediately known.

"Something like this, where we have a fatality involved ... family isn't expecting something like this to happen, then to receive sudden news that a loved one has passed away. It's a little more difficult to take," said Cpl. Colbey Bentley with the Tooele City Police Department.

Investigators are looking into the accident and whether a medical condition or distraction could have been the cause.

A close friend of the driver's family said it was believed the driver might have suffered a seizure while driving.

"We’ve got to see if it was a medical episode that caused this crash," said Bentley. " If there was impairment, if there was a distraction. There’s a lot of things that our officers and investigators are working on right now to be able to piece that together."

Crews on the scene cleaned up debris from the office that had been scattered across the parking lot. The office was boarded up as the investigation continued.


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