SALT LAKE MAN KILLED IN CAR-TRUCK CANYON SMASH
The Richfield Reaper
Richfield, Utah
Thursday, June 18, 1959
SEVIER - A 46 year old Salt Lake City man was killed instantly Monday afternoon in a
car-truck collision 10.9 miles west of Sevier Junction on Utah Highway 13.
Dead is Wallis Baird Nelson, a hydraulic engineer for the Geological Survey of the U.S.
Government.
Injured in the mishap was a passenger in the Nelson automobile, Rifki Alton, 31 a Turkish
exchange student and Warren Hutchings 51, Beaver, driver of the truck. Alton was taken to
Sevier Valley Hospital where he was reported in good condition, suffering from cuts and bruises.
Mr. Hutchings was taken to Cedar City Hospital, where he was treated for shock, undetermined
back and chest injuries.
According to Sevier County Sheriff Rex Huntsman who investigated along with Deputy
Murvin Colby, the Nelson car was eastbound at the time of the mishap. He said Mr. Hutchings,
westbound in the truck involved, rounded a turn in the canyon and came upon the Nelson car
which was pulling off on the south side of the road. Thinking the car was preparing to stop, Mr.
Hutchings said he pulled his truck around to the north in the opposite lane to give extra clearance
to the car. The car then made a swift swerve to its own side of the road, directly in front of the
truck.
Sheriff Huntsman said very little speed was indicated as neither vehicle moved any great
distance after point of impact. Skid marks showed the car, in its attempt to get to its own side of
the road went 57 feet before impact and the truck tire marks were 51.6 feet prior to the crash.
A passing motorist, Donald Gates of Salina brought Mr. Alton into Richfield.
The fatality was Sevier County's first for 1959.
Funeral services for Mr. Nelson will be conducted Thursday (today) at noon in the Grant
Fifth Ward Chapel, Salt Lake City with burial in the Elysian Burial Gardens.