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One dead, two injured in separate Washington County UTV accidents

Posted at 4:34 PM, May 13, 2019
and last updated 2019-05-14 08:14:54-04

WASHINGTON COUNTY — One man is dead and two juveniles are injured in two different UTV accidents happening in Washington County over the weekend.

On Saturday, May 11, the Washington County Sheriff’s Office received a 911 call of an UTV fire near Steck Park.

The driver of the UTV, 42-year-old James Bingham, told deputies that he was driving the UTV with 23-year-old Steven Groves as a passenger up a hill at the sand dunes according to a press release. When Bingham and Groves got to the top of the hill, they turned around and started heading back down. When they were driving down the hill, Bingham saw a man down the road waving his arms and yelling. At that time, Groves yelled the UTV was on fire.

Both men were secured in the UTV with five-point harnesses. Bigham was able to get his harness undone, but Groves was overtaken by the flames before he was able to get his seatbelt unfastened. When the harness holding Groves in the seat burned off, Bingham removed him from the UTV.

Both Bingham and Groves were transported to the Weiser hospital, then later to the Salt Lake City burn center, where Groves later died from his injuries.

Also on Saturday, deputies received a call that two juveniles had been injured in a UTV crash near Brownlee Summit.

Both juveniles were transported to Cambridge in a private vehicle, where they were met with medical personnel. They were then transported by Life Flight to Boise.

The crash is still under investigation.