By Myrna Trauntvein
Times-News Correspondent
Two people died in a single vehicle accident on Sunday,
August 26th, at 5:50 a.m. on Interstate-15 just east of
Nephi.
Dead at the scene were Brad Carlisle, 41, Scipio, and
his daughter, Judith Carlisle, 17, also of Scipio.
The vehicle was driven by Galene Carlisle, 39, wife
and mother of the victims. Two other children, both boys, 9-
and 11-years old, received minor injuries in the accident
and were treated at Central Valley Medical Center, as was
their mother, and were later released.
"The trailer they were hauling became detached from
the truck," said Charlie Wilson, Utah Highway Patrol
Trooper. "The accident was caused by the combination of a
number of factors."
One of those was that the trailer had a larger
diameter connection than the 2-inch ball it was riding on.
Another was the rough surface of the roadway in the area,
and a third was a one-ton bale of hay being hauled behind
the insulated trailer.
"They were hauling milk inside plastic containers in
the trailer," said Wilson. "They had hay strapped to the
back of the trailer."
"They would have been OK with the trailer
ball&emdash;it would probably have held&emdash;if the hay
had not been strapped to the back. It was properly strapped,
but it acted as a counter balance. There was little weight
on the tongue."
A further irony, was that the proper sized trailer
ball was in the back of the truck.
He said that family members not involved in the
accident said, as part of their dairy operation, they have
several different trailers and they use different sized
balls. Somehow, the mistake had been made to connect the
wrong ball to the vehicle.
The road between the middle and north Nephi exits of
the freeway have several small dips, said Wilson. That
created just enough bounce that the trailer came off the
ball.
The trailer was a heavy two-axle one and it followed
the vehicle off the east, or right side, of the north-bound
lane. It was traveling in the far right lane of the freeway
at the time of the accident.
The vehicle rolled, ejecting Brad and Judith Carlisle,
who were not wearing seat belts.
The door came off the cooler, as well, and ruptured
most of the milk jugs the trailer contained.
Both the trailer and vehicle came to rest
approximately 400-feet north of the point where the trailer
came unhitched.
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