A strange sequence of events Saturday led to a head-on collision that killed one and left another in critical condition.
According to Moab Police reports, a group of four adults ate at Fiesta Mexicana but couldn’t pay the bill.
Around 2:45 p.m., two of them – Erik Yazzie, 32, of Phoenix; and Rita Slim, 45, of Corpus Christie, Texas – left to get cash from an ATM.
They returned, saying their cards didn’t work because the banks were closed for the weekend.
The restaurant manager agreed to let them pay later, as long as one of them left a driver’s license behind.
Later that night, at 8:03 p.m., Slim reported her 1993 Ford Taurus with New Mexico plates stolen. Moab Police searched for the car with no luck.
A short while later, reports of a two-car accident at mile marker 110 on U.S. Hwy. 191, just south of Hole in the Rock, came in.
One of the vehicles was the Taurus Slim had reported stolen.
The driver? Slim’s lunch buddy, Yazzie.
He was flown to St. Mary’s Hospital in Grand Junction, Colo., in critical condition. The driver of the car Yazzie struck head-on died, according to Moab Police, though the Utah Highway Patrol and Grand County Sheriff’s Department responded to the accident.
