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Toquerville — An unsecured cement pumping truck launched off an estimated 100-foot-high cliff at a construction site on South Peachtree Drive Friday afternoon. The vehicle landed in the gorge of Ash Creek and was severely damaged.

Josh Langston was helping his friend at the construction site when the incident began and said the operator of the truck was outside of the vehicle when it began to roll. The driver attempted to jump back into the truck to stop it and consequently was dragged for a distance of approximately 50 – 75 feet.

“It looked like he was going to get pulled under the truck,” Langston said. “He crashed through this tree up here. My buddy Justin and I were right here. We started running towards him, I don’t know what we were going to do. Once he was within, I don’t know, 50 feet, 40 feet of the cliff, Justin was just like ‘let go’ because he was still trying to get into that truck to stop it, and by that point it was going 20 miles an hour, maybe 30 miles an hour.”

The driver did finally let go and despite being dragged through several bushes appeared to be uninjured, Langston said, adding they watched the truck go airborne off the side of the cliff before it disappeared out of sight to crash loudly in the gorge below.

“It’s one of the craziest things I’ve ever seen for sure,” Langston said.

The vehicle came to rest at the bottom of the gorge, with debris scattered all around it.

Chief Deputy Shauna Jones with the Washington County Sheriff’s Office issued a news release on the incident that states:

A concrete truck was unoccupied, and apparently not sufficiently secured, when it rolled off an embankment at a job site near S. Peachtree Drive & W. Lake Lane, Toquerville. I have unconfirmed information that it rolled about 100 feet. I do not have many details, but it appears that the hazardous material concern is from engine fluids that routinely leak from a damaged vehicle into a river, not concern from the contents of the truck leaking into the river. Hurricane fire and Hildale fire are working on containment. UHP’s commercial inspection team was requested, no other details are known at this time.

The scent of diesel fuel was pervasive on the scene, and emergency responders were placing fuel-absorbing materials in Ash Creek to try and contain the spill.

This report is based on preliminary information provided by law enforcement or other emergency responders and may not contain the full scope of findings.

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Copyright St. George News, SaintGeorgeUtah.com LLC, 2016, all rights reserved.

ST. GEORGE — In July, Candi Kardash will turn 62. It’s a birthday that was in doubt nearly a year ago.

As June turned to July last year, the resident of the Savannah suburb of Richmond Hill, Georgia, was on the second-to-last day of a once-in-a-lifetime trip with 34 other family members to see the sites of the West.

But the day would end with Kardash needing to be the first person to be rescued by the then-new Utah Department of Public Safety Southern Utah helicopter rescue team as well as a joint effort of the Washington County Search and Rescue with the Hurricane Valley Fire District.

After 10 months and three surgeries, Kardash is still recovering and still requires a walker. But she contacted St. George News for one reason: To express her gratitude for her rescuers.

“I wish to let these amazing rescuers know that I’m very grateful for their quick response in my time of need,” Kardash said. “Each one of them are heroes in my book.”

Washington County Search and Rescue hear many cries for help. But hearing a cry of thanks was music to the ears of Sgt. Darrell Cashin, who leads the team.

“Hearing the gratitude and thankfulness of someone we rescue is why we all do search and rescue,” Cashin told St. George News. “It lets us all know that what we did made a difference in someone’s life. We are humbled and encouraged to continue helping those in need.”

Last July 1, Kardash and members of her extended family were on an all-terrain vehicle tour through the outlying areas of Zion National Park when they came upon Toquerville Falls.

Kardash said the guides told her it was OK to jump off the waterfall, so Kardash took the leap. But like many local waterfalls, the water below was more shallow than it looked and the grandmother landed with a thud that instantly shattered and crushed her right ankle and the tibia at her left knee.

“My injuries were extremely painful,” Kardash told St. George News. “I was screaming as the pain was unbearable.”

It was a little after 10 a.m., and it would take hours for help to arrive and for Kardash to ultimately get to the hospital because of the falls’ remote location via an unpaved road and short hike 11 miles from the Toquerville Boulevard-Spring Drive turnoff. A family member needed to hike a mile just to get a cell phone signal.

While waiting for a rescue, Kardash’s family tried to help.

“My family helped to keep me as comfortable as possible. They kept me in the water as the cold water would help keep the swelling down,” she said. “My nephews tried to keep my legs stable because the waterfall’s movement made it incredibly painful.”

When the Southern Utah rescuers arrived, they tried to load her onto a truck but Kardash cried loudly in pain. She recalled one of the rescuers stopping the truck from departing:

“I remember one of the rescuers slapping his hand and the roof of the truck and ordered them to stop, ‘This isn’t going to work!’”

A helicopter was needed, but Intermountain Lifeflight was already on a call. But Cashin said at the time he knew the DPS chopper was on its first day as a second option.

The DPS helicopter flew in, but because heat and conditions made it tougher for the helicopter to lift, the co-pilot had to stay behind and a door had to be removed to reduce weight.

There was also a weight of fear on the part of Kardash.

“I had never been on a helicopter or an ambulance for that matter,” she said. “I was feeling a bit freaked out. After their reassuring words, the dirt was flying and so was I.”

The helicopter landed in a church parking lot in Toquerville to a waiting ambulance that took her to St. George Regional Hospital and her first surgery. She would celebrate July Fourth there before going back to Georgia and spending another month and a half in the hospital. She still has some recovery ahead.

But her doctor says she will recover, and he attributes it to the start Kardash had in Utah.

“My doctor told me that the surgeon in Utah set him up for success. Top-notch work,” Kardash said. “I was so blessed by the actions of the kind and professional people of Utah rescue workers.”

Copyright St. George News, SaintGeorgeUtah.com LLC, 2023, all rights reserved.

Laudable 20th-century photographers Dorothea Lange and Ansel Adams spent their careers traversing the United States, taking photos of everything from stunning landscapes to heartbreaking Great Depression scenes. These images can be seen at high-end galleries and museums across the country.

But there are three places that often get forgotten in their memoirs of places they documented. James Swensen, an art history professor at Brigham Young University, is bringing to light a photo series that ran in Life magazine that showcased photos the two took in Toquerville, Gunlock and St. George Utah.

“In a Rugged Land” features images Swensen compiled from the photographer's month-long stay and what it was like for the photographers to go through Utah’s rural, sometimes harsh landscape. Now, the book is being honored for being the best book of Utah history in 2019 by the Utah Historical Society.

Perceptions of the towns

The landscape and culture of southern Utah for the two photographers wasn’t completely unknown when they started taking photos in August 1953. But Swensen said if Lange and Adams were to return to the area today, they’d be surprised how much the personalities of the towns have changed.

“Gunlock was young and youthful and vibrant, Toquerville was waning. They would be shocked to see the opposite,” Swensen said. “[The photographers] took people off guard when it showed up in Life, millions saw it every week. People of Gunlock were pleased, but St. George and Toquerville weren’t shown in a warm, rosy light.”

Images of St. George show the growing materialism in the area. In Life magazine it reads, "St. George has taken up worldly ways." The images show a growing tourism industry, with the neon lights and chain stores around town.

Toquerville is described in Life magazine as "old and quiet but its children have gone away." Many of the older residents were photographed as well as buildings that are falling apart.

On the other hand, Gunlock shows many young people riding horses and playing around. In Life magazine, Gunlock is described as "young and beginning to meet the future." Which today, Swensen said, doesn't seem to be the case.

'Barely a footnote'

The photographers often surprised people in these towns with all the photography equipment, but eventually residents would open up and relax. One bishop with The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints even allowed Lange and Adams to attend and photograph services. But the project ended on not-so-great terms between Lange and Adams, and is "barely a footnote" in the photographers' careers, according to Swensen.

In writing the book, Swensen enjoyed being able to go back and look at these images and meet people who were photographed or descendants of those photographed. He was also able to work with Lange’s son to learn more about what the thoughts were of the photographers.

"Their stories helped me understand what that experience was like, And that was one of the most rewarding things [about writing this book]," Swensen said.

Read more St. George news:

Lexi Peery is the environment and politics reporter for The Spectrum & Daily News, a USA TODAY Network newsroom based in southern Utah. You can reach her at [email protected] and follow her on Twitter @LexiFP. And if you want to support and sustain this work, consider subscribing today.

| Updated: 7:18 p.m.

A Toquerville mother who locked her severely malnourished 12-year-old son in a bathroom for up to a year was sentenced Monday to serve three consecutive sentences of one to 15 years in prison for child abuse.

Fifth District Judge Eric Ludlow sentenced Brandy K. Jaynes to up to 45 years in prison Monday afternoon, according to a report from The Spectrum and Daily News, after attorneys argued about her level of remorse

A letter from the victim in the case said he would get one meal of a couple of hot dogs every other day for four months and would be drenched with ”ice cold water in the winter,” the newspaper reported.

His statement described frustration and confusion, and as Ludlow pointed out, one “particularly heart-wrenching” paragraph in which the boy said he would like to see his mother again someday.

“She did horrible things to me, but she’s still my mom,” the boy wrote. “I feel safe now. I started feeling safe when I got away from her.”

A pre-sentence report said Jaynes has shown no remorse for her actions, but defense attorney Edward Flint countered she “has great sorrow, remorse and concern” for that boy, as well as for her other two children.

Flint wrote in a sentencing memorandum filed last week with 5th District Judge Eric Ludlow that the Adult Probation and Parole (APP) interviewer never asked BrandyJaynes questions about her son. Flint asked the judge to strike that portion of the APP report.

Flint urged the judge to take into account a letter Brandy Jaynes wrote to the court, in which she admitted that she “screwed up by not getting help” and apologized “to everyone I have hurt.”

Brandy Jaynes, 36, pleaded guilty as charged last month to three counts of second-degree felony child abuse. Though she was sentenced to a maximum penalty of one to 15 years in prison on each charge, Flint said APP sentencing guidelines call for jail time and probation.

Prosecutors asked for consecutive terms, for a total sentence of three to 45 years in prison.

| Courtesy of Washington County jail Brandy K. Jaynes

In January, Jaynes’ husband, 40-year-old Russell Orin Jaynes, took the 12-year-old boy — who weighed 30 pounds — to a local hospital for treatment after he found the child was locked in a bathroom. Later, police said the bathroom was covered in feces and had empty cans of beans and a spoon in the shower.

The boy’s two siblings told investigators that their brother had been in the bathroom for at least one year, though Flint has said he doesn’t believe the child was there for that long.

After an investigation, Russell Jaynes was charged with third-degree felony reckless child abuse, accused of not intervening sooner regarding his son’s care. He is expected to be in court again Sept. 19, when he may resolve his case, according to court records.

Flint has said that Brandy Jaynes was overwhelmed by a child with “severe special needs.”

But prosecutors say in a response to the defense memorandum that any problems the boy had were “a direct result of the defendant‘s abuse and neglect of him.”

The boy was removed from school for home schooling in December 2012, prosecutors wrote, and the only issue identified by school officials was that he had been caught stealing and was falling behind in classwork because of excessive absences.

In his sentencing memorandum, Flint says Brandy Jaynes went from being “an abused child to a young mother, to a homemaker and mother, with no outside work or interests.”

In the four months before her January arrest, Flint wrote, Brandy Jaynes began abusing heroin and methamphetamine as her 14-year marriage deteriorated.

“This was the time of the most serious decline in the victim‘s health and well-being, and probably constitutes the actual time where [the 12-year-old boy] spent either locked in, or staying in the bathroom by his own choice,” Flint wrote.

Flint noted that Brandy Jaynes had scheduled an appointment for the 12-year-old boy to see a doctor Jan. 23, but she was arrested Jan. 12.

Brandy Jaynes “concedes she should have taken [the boy] in to see doctors and specialists months or even years ago, when it was clear that she was not capable of caring for his special needs,” Flint wrote.

Flint noted that Brandy Jaynes’ prison sentence means the state will seek to permanently terminate her parental rights. If she were granted probation, there would have been a possibility of having her children in her life, Flint said.

The couple’s children are in state custody.

ST. GEORGE — It was the first day of the Utah Department of Public Safety’s new Southern Utah helicopter rescue team, and it only took a few hours for it to prove its worth.

They came to assist Friday in the rescue of a woman who was injured while either jumping or falling off a waterfall in a remote, rugged area above Toquerville. A woman shattered her left knee and right ankle after a rough landing in the rocks below Toquerville Falls, and it took a joint effort of Washington County Search and Rescue with the Hurricane Valley Fire District to reach the injured party.

But to get her out, it took an additional team that until Friday didn’t exist in Southern Utah.

Until now, the Utah Department of Public Safety’s Aero Bureau would aid in rescues locally by having to fly its helicopter an hour-and-a-half from Salt Lake City. But on Friday, a second team and helicopter went into operation at St. George Airport.

When it became too difficult and painful to the victim to get her out on the ground, Sgt. Darrell Cashin, who oversees Washington County Sheriff’s Search and Rescue team, knew who to call.

“Knowing that the DPS helicopter was here and it was their first day, I figured this would be a good opportunity. They were five hours into it and we said, ‘We need you,’” Cashin said.

Toquerville Falls is considered a hidden treasure of a hike with water from LaVerkin Creek cascading down stepped cliffs,

The area is only reachable by a rough, unpaved road and a short hike. It’s a place without a cell phone signal located 11 miles from the Toquerville Boulevard-Spring Drive turnoff and civilization.

Because of that, a person accompanying the injured woman had to hike at least a mile before getting a signal to call for help, Cashin said.

It’s unclear if the woman had lost her footing on the falls and fell or deliberately jumped, Cashin said. But the result was painful.

The rescuers quickly learned that the initial attempt to drive the injured woman from the scene wasn’t going to work.

“We tried to put her in a vehicle and the pain was too excruciating,” Cashin said, necessitating the need for a short airlift. “The injuries were not life-threatening. It was more of getting her to an ambulance with less discomfort to her.”

After taking off from its new base of St. George Airport, the helicopter found a landing zone near the falls and the woman was brought aboard. She was then flown within minutes to a Toquerville church parking lot where a waiting ambulance took her to St. George Regional Hospital.

Cashin said the Aero Bureau’s new Southern Utah team passed their first test with flying colors.

“We have called on them a lot in the last month but (they) had to fly out of Salt Lake,” Cashin said. “Having them this close with this quick response is really going to enhance our ability.”

Copyright St. George News, SaintGeorgeUtah.com LLC, 2022, all rights reserved.