CEDAR CITY — A woman and a man were arrested on Saturday after allegedly fleeing the scene of a traffic collision in Cedar Canyon.
Lisabet Acosta Carvajal, 27, and Jaime Cruz Jimenez, 38, were booked into Iron County Jail on Saturday afternoon. Each faces one count of failure to remain at the scene of an injury accident, a class A misdemeanor. In addition, Carvajal faces two driving infractions, namely failure to remain in a single lane and driving too fast for conditions.
According to the probable cause statements filed in support of their arrests, at approximately 7:44 a.m. Saturday, a pickup truck being driven by Carvajal was involved in a collision with another pickup truck near mile marker 10 on state Route 14. The roadway was reportedly slick and icy at the time of the crash.
“Once law enforcement arrived on scene, it was reported that the occupants of one of the vehicles involved had fled the scene on foot,” the arresting Utah Highway Patrol trooper wrote in the affidavits.
The other party involved in the collision was able to provide officers with a description of the two individuals who had taken off.
Additional resources were called in to assist in the search, including a police K-9 and a Department of Public Safety helicopter.
Around 9:30 a.m., the helicopter crew spotted the pair hiding among some trees in the area.
After confirming their descriptions, a group of officers, including the K-9, then took the two into custody without further incident.
The incident, along with at least one other secondary crash that happened at that same location, prompted the full closure of SR-14 while the scene was investigated.
Following the removal of the wrecked vehicles, the scene was cleared and the road was fully reopened by 10:30 a.m., Utah Highway Patrol Lt. Clay Allred told Cedar City News.
Personnel from Iron County Sheriff’s Office and Cedar City Police Department also responded to the incident and provided assistance.
This report is based on statements from court documents and law enforcement officials and may not contain the full scope of findings. Persons arrested or charged are presumed innocent until found guilty in a court of law or as otherwise decided by a trier-of-fact.
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