Two Men Face Manslaughter Charges in Fatal 2022 Big Cottonwood Canyon Crash
Image (Cristina Flores)
Salt Lake City – A pregnant woman was killed in a fatal crash in Big Cottonwood Canyon in 2022, and two men have been officially charged with manslaughter.
The defendants are 31-year-old Jonathan Ryan Sargent and 36-year-old Dalton Nathon Wheeler, according to court documents. Both are accused of two counts of second-degree criminal manslaughter for the woman’s murder and the killing of her unborn child.
An approaching Honda Pilot carrying four persons, including two little children, was struck by a dump truck transporting asphalt millings that lost control on a bend in August 2022.
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Jessica Keetch of West Jordan, Minnesota, the driver of the Honda, passed away on the spot. The baby died, and authorities eventually verified that woman was 12 weeks pregnant. Both a 2-year-old girl and a 4-year-old boy were critically injured; the adult female passenger needed surgery for severe damage, while the child sustained critical injuries. With non-life-threatening injuries, Sargent, the truck’s driver, was also sent to the hospital.
Sargent told investigators that the truck slid out of gear as he attempted to turn into the hillside to avoid crashing and that the brakes failed while he was descending the canyon at around 25 mph. The vehicle was actually moving at 54 mph when it tipped over, according to a collision study.
The investigation revealed that the truck was owned by Wheeler’s company, Alpine Excavation, LLC. The car had been in “critical need of repair” for months, according to detectives. According to records, the Utah Department of Transportation “red tagged” it and removed it from service in April 2021.
A mechanic attempted brake repairs in July 2022, a few weeks prior to the collision, but informed Wheeler that substantial work was still needed before the truck could be driven safely. The car was put back into service in spite of this.
Wheeler said investigators that drivers were required to check their trucks both before and after each shift and that Sargent was not formally employed as a driver. However, workers claimed that Wheeler was usually notified informally of problems and that no official inspection documentation was maintained.
Wheeler further asserted that the truck had gone two years without an inspection because of personnel turnover, and that “user error” was the reason it sprang out of gear.
Prosecutors claim that the incident was avoidable and that the men’s carelessness in maintaining and operating the dump truck is what led to the men’s current significant charges.
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