Police responded to several calls of a body found on I-80 near Saltair Sunday morning. (Photo: Mark Wetzel, KSL TV)
SALT LAKE COUNTY – Utah Highway Patrol say they have identified the man whose body was found deceased on I-80 near Saltair Sunday morning .
Investigators are still not releasing the name just yet. Utah Highway Patrol Sgt. Lawrence Hopper says the investigators identified the victim as an adult male from the Salt Lake Valley. He did not say when they might release the name.
UHP dispatch received several calls of a body lying in the road at the SR-202 overpass around 3:35 am. Troopers arriving on the scene found an unidentified male had been struck multiple times, lying in the right-hand lane of travel. Investigators believe the male may have been on the SR-202 overpass and then fell onto westbound I-80.
Authorities also say the man may have been attending a music festival nearby and may have gotten sick as he left and made his way south on the overpass.
At least one semi-truck hit the man and the driver returned to the scene. But no other vehicles have been identified.
Utah Highway Patrol Sgt. Lawrence Hopper says, “It’s dark out there. People may know they hit something, but don’t realize it was a person.”
Hopper was asking for drivers who were on I-80 near SR 202 this morning to please call the dispatch center if they saw something, or possibly hit the man earlier Sunday.
The man whose body was found did not have anything to identify him on his body and was not with anyone else.
Westbound I-80 was closed from 3:35 am to 6:10 am this morning while the accident was cleaned up investigated.