Utah teen killed on icy I-84

A 17-year-old girl died in a single-vehicle accident on icy I-84 at milepost 75 near Simco Road Friday night, in a wreck that sent five of the other six members of her Bountiful, Utah, family to the hospital.

Emily M. Reeves was killed at about 8 p.m. Friday when the Ford Explorer driven by her father, Melvyn Reeves, lost control on the icy road, went off the right side of the westbound lane, and rolled at least four times. She was pronounced dead at the scene.

One member of the family, a female, was not hospitalized. Three were taken to local hospitals by ambulance and two were airlifted from the scene by helicopter ambulance and taken to Boise hospitals in serious condition. All of the people in the vehicle were wearing seat belts.

A witness to the accident said they were traveling at about 45 mph on the interstate, where a storm had just passed through, when the Reeves vehicle passed them, then it suddenly appeared to lose control and went off the road.

"People just aren't taking into consideration road conditions," said Chief Deputy Nick Schilz of the Elmore County Sheriff's Office. Authorities reported almost no incident last Thursday when a heavy snowfall hit the area, but Tuesday's and Friday's storms and icy road conditions resulting from them, combined with frozen fog in the morning, caused a large number of slide-offs on area roads, some involving injuries, although complete reports were not immediately available.

Friday's accident was the second fatality on I-84 in Elmore County in the last two weeks due to poor road conditions and drivers driving too fast for conditions.

"The speed limit is a maximum for good road conditions," Schilz noted. "When things get wet or icy, you've got to slow down."