Two young girls were discovered trapped and refrigerated inside a lorry after the driver – their half-brother – crashed on a US highway.
Jacob Ortell Scott, 28, was driving a tractor-trailer northbound on Interstate 15 in Lindon late morning Wednesday when it lost a tire, went over a barrier and hit two stopped vehicles, according to Utah Highway Patrol Lt Cameraon Roden.
Troopers were in the area clearing another crash and one of them noticed ‘two sets of eyes’ in the lorry, stated an affidavit obtained by KJZZ.
The trooper confronted Scott, who looked ‘surprised’ but then admitted that there were kids in the trailer, it stated.
‘At that point, we saw the 12- and the 14-year-old girl standing in the back of the trailer with the milk and the meat products,’ said Lt Clay Morgan.
Investigators first suspected that the sisters were being driven against their will, but saw backpacks and duffel bags belonging to them and determined that was not the case. Scott was driving them from Huntington to Salt Lake to see their older sister.
But the conditions in which they were being transported were inhumane. The temperature inside the lorry was below freezing at 30 degrees Fahrenheit, and at one point fell to 29.5 degree, according to authorities.
‘Troopers observed bedding inside the refrigerated trailer as well,’ stated the affidavit.
‘There was no way for the girls to exit.’
The girls were not injured and have been brought to other family members.
Meanwhile, Scott was taken to a nearby hospital for a possible hand injury. He has been arrested, charged with third-degree felony aggravated child abuse and booked into Utah County Jail. A judge ordered him to be held without bail because of evidence showing he was a ‘substantial danger’ to others.
He did not have any misdemeanor convictions or a felony record, according to court records.
Two people in the stopped vehicles were taken to nearby hospitals, with one in critical condition and the other in serious condition.
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