Driver in deadly auto-pedestrian crash going twice the velocity restrict, investigators say

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TAYLORSVILLE — A person who police estimate was touring 80 mph in a 35 mph zone when he regarded right down to eat his quick meals and hit and killed a pedestrian is now going through legal costs.

Aron Jimenez-Contreras, 19, of West Valley Metropolis, was charged Monday in third District Courtroom with negligently working a automobile leading to loss of life, a second-degree felony; and DUI, carrying a gun whereas below the affect, and inflicting an accident with injury, all class B misdemeanors.

The sequence of occasions started early within the morning of Dec. 31 when Jimenez-Contreras allegedly hit one other automobile within the car parking zone of McDonald’s, 5400 S. 3900 West, in line with charging paperwork. A McDonald’s worker instructed police that he was working the drive-thru window and “noticed that the driving force of the automobile seemed to be drunk or medication. (The worker) acknowledged the driving force received his meals, floored the automobile out of the drive-thru and struck one other automobile. The automobile then floored it out of the car parking zone,” the fees state.

A couple of minutes later, police acquired a report of an auto-pedestrian crash at 4943 S. 4015 West. Regardless of life-saving efforts, together with from Jimenez-Contreras who tried to carry out CPR on the sufferer, Ricardo Jauregui-Casellanos, 36, was pronounced lifeless on the scene.

After the crash, Jimenez-Contreras allegedly handed his gun to one of many passengers in his automobile, “and instructed him and the opposite passenger to take off as this did not contain them and that he would name the police,” the fees state.

Police suspected Jimenez-Contreras was drunk, however the DUI portion of the investigation didn’t occur till roughly 2½ hours after the crash, in line with the fees. At the moment, Jimenez-Contreras’s blood-alcohol content material measured at 0.035%, which is beneath the authorized restrict in Utah for folks aged 21 and over. Nonetheless, in line with prosecutors, “because of the price at which an individual metabolizes alcohol, Jimenez-Contreras would have been over a 0.05% blood-alcohol stage on the time of the incident.”

Jimenez-Contreras allegedly admitted to police that he was ingesting previous to the crash and that he thought he had simply hit the curb on the McDonald’s car parking zone, in line with the fees.

“Jimenez-Contreras acknowledged he drove away consuming some french fries he had ordered from McDonald’s. He acknowledged he regarded down on the french fries, and when he regarded up, he observed a pedestrian strolling throughout the road when he struck him. Jimenez-Contreras acknowledged he tried to cease however did not have a lot time,” in line with charging paperwork.

Investigators decided that Jimenez-Contreras “was touring at roughly 76 mph on the time of the affect, and had been touring at roughly 80 mph 5 seconds previous to affect. The posted velocity restrict in that space is 35 mph,” the fees state.

Prosecutors additionally word that Jimenez-Contreras “has a major historical past of visitors violations” together with receiving a dashing ticket in West Valley Metropolis on Dec. 29.

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