The newly elected mayor of Inexperienced River, Utah, was killed late Friday when his automobile was hit head-on by a semitruck, authorities stated.
Mayor Ren Hatt, who had simply been reelected to a second time period in November, was 40.
The accident occurred round 9:40 p.m. Friday as a 2021 Freightliner semi headed west on Freeway 6 about eight miles west of Inexperienced River with Hatt’s 2020 Hyundai Palisade touring east, the Utah Division of Public Security stated Saturday in a press release.
“For an unknown reason, the Freightliner drifted into the eastbound lanes and struck the front passenger side (head-on) of the Hyundai,” the Utah Division of Public Security stated.
The semi instantly veered again, to the far proper facet of the freeway, police stated. The Hyundai was pushed and ended up on the righthand facet of the eastbound lanes. Hatt was killed immediately.
“The investigation is ongoing,” police stated. “Impairment is not suspected.”
The 1,000-person city about 140 miles southeast of Provo is called a jumping-off level for touring Utah’s nationwide and state parks, and for its melons. Vacationers and residents alike flock there each September for the competition often called Melon Days.
“We are saddened to share that Mayor Hatt, Ren, was involved in a fatal crash late last night on Highway 6 east of Green River,” wrote the city on its Fb web page. “Mayor Hatt loved this community deeply, and he served it with honesty, kindness, and unwavering commitment. We are grieving alongside his family, friends, and all who knew him.”
His fiance Maria Faye Sykes wrote that “the love of my life, my fiancé and best friend Ren Hatt was killed in a car crash last night,” and requested for “prayers for our families, for me, and for the many, many people who loved him in his far too few 40 years on this earth.”
Hatt graduated in 2014 from Case Western Reserve College Faculty of Legislation and went on to be a instructor, a place he continued to carry as mayor.
