USU faculty survive fatal car crash
Two Utah State University faculty are OK after being involved in a fatal car accident Wednesday evening near the Sherwood Hills turnoff in Sardine Canyon
Gaylen Chandler, head of the management and human resources department, and Henry Nowak, a special projects manager at USU, were driving south through the canyon at about 5:12 p.m. when their car was struck head on by a driver who had lost control of her vehicle.
Vicki Cottrell, 58, lost control of her vehicle and spun into oncoming traffic, said Utah Highway Patrol Sgt. Rick Mayo.
Mayo said all three were taken to Logan Regional Hospital where Cottrell was pronounced dead.
“Indications at the scene were that if she hadn’t passed [away], she was close,” he said.
Chandler, 48, was treated for cuts and bruises and was released Thursday night. Nowak suffered multiple broken ribs, Mayo said.
Icy road conditions on U.S. Highway 89-91 Wednesday were probably the reason for the accident, he said.
“She lost control in slick and slushy roads,” he said. “Drugs and alcohol were not a factor. And there are no indications that she was speeding.
The roads were slushy and she just lost control.”
Cottrell, of Salt Lake City, was the director of the Utah chapter of the National Alliance for the Mentally Ill, a nonprofit organization that offers support for families and friends of people with severe mental illnesses.
-acf@cc.usu.edu