This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2015, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.
A longtime Salt Lake County jail employee died Friday after her white Buick Regal was T-boned by a black Dodge Ram pickup truck in the intersection of 5400 South and Redwood Road.
The Utah Highway Patrol, asked to investigate the crash because the victim was employed within county's law enforcement branch, said the crash occurred about 7 a.m.
UHP Sgt. Todd Royce said that 50-year-old Jill Houston, of West Jordan, was pronounced dead not long after being rushed to Intermountain Medical Center in Murray.
Jail Sgt. Cammie Skoggs confirmed that Houston worked as a control room operator for the correctional facility. Houston recently celebrated seven years on the job.
"She was well known and extremely well liked here at our facility," Skoggs said. "Obviously, there's a lot of devastation going on today [among jail staffers]."
The jail's control room, Skoggs said, is the communications "lifeline" for the facility, with staff there dispatching personnel within the units, opening doors, answering phones and handling jail personnel radio backup calls.
UHP Sgt. Todd Royce said troopers had not yet determined which of the drivers was at fault, though it appeared certain that one of them ran a red light.
The driver of the pickup truck, also a Salt Lake County employee from an undisclosed department, was not reported to have suffered any injury.
A Buick was traveling northbound on Redwood Road and the eastbound on 5400 South when the front of the pickup struck the driver side door of the Buick, according to the UHP.
The investigation was ongoing Friday afternoon.
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