Driver sentenced in crash that killed boy, 3

Heavy rain contributed to a crash near the Carbon and Emery county line Thursday, killing an Idaho man and injurinThe driver in a collision last year that killed a 3-year-old boy was sentenced Thursday to a year in jail.

Agustin Garcia Morales, 33, had already pleaded guilty to misdemeanor manslaughter in connection with the Nov. 1 incident that fatally injured Juan Ruiz.

The crash happened about 7:20 a.m. on Encinitas Boulevard east of Saxony Road.

Juan was walking to a bus stop with his mother, who was also pushing her 1-year-old son in a stroller, when Juan was struck by a 2003 Toyota Camry at the end of a steep driveway leading from the apartment complex where Morales lived.

The car also hit the stroller, prosecutor Stephen Marquardt has said.

Defense lawyer Peter Liss said in a phone interview that his client failed to come to a complete stop at the end of the driveway, and he tried to help when he learned the boy had been injured.

“He made a mistake and it had a tragic, unintended consequence,” Liss said. “And from day one, he felt terrible.”

Other charges, including providing investigators with false information and driving without a valid license, were dropped in light of Morales’ plea.

He has been in jail since a few days after the collision, and has credit for more than 230 days in custody, Liss said.

Prosecutors did not charge Morales with driving with a measurable amount of alcohol in his blood, though sheriff’s deputies arrested him on suspicion of drunken driving.

Deputies gave Morales a field sobriety test at the scene. His blood-alcohol level was 0.029 percent, Marquardt said. The legal driving limit in California is 0.08 percent.g two others.

An eastbound Toyota 4Runner on U.S. 6 lost control in a "sudden, heavy downpour" about 3 p.m., according to the Utah Highway Patrol. The vehicle hit the driver's side of a westbound Ford Escort, killing 22-year-old Jack Le Roy Seiber, of Blackfoot, Idaho. The crash occurred about 11 miles north of Helper.

The driver of the 4Runner was not injured, but two passengers were transported to an area hospital with injuries that were not life-threatening. Drugs and alcohol do not appear to be a factor in the crash, and all airbags deployed properly, the UHP reported.

The road was shut down briefly while medical crews responded, and traffic was restricted to one lane for three hours while the crash was investigated.