In the wee hours of November 29, 2025, a horrific head-on crash on I-15 in Salt Lake City took the lives of two young teens. It was all because some guy was driving the wrong way, totally drunk, and now it’s got everyone in Utah talking about how we need better ways to keep roads safe.
This whole thing went down around 1:55 a.m. on the northbound side near 2100 South. The driver, a 21-year-old from West Valley City named Jose Angel Torres Jimenez, apparently got on the highway the wrong way via the 600 South off-ramp and started heading south in the northbound lanes. His gray Audi SQ5 smashed right into a black Nissan Rogue with the two kids inside.
A tweet from X.
The collision was brutal the Rogue caught fire instantly, and both people in it died right there. Official info from the Utah Department of Public Safety backs up the timing, spot, and what the cars looked like. Jimenez got away with just some minor scrapes and got arrested on the spot.
One of the victims was Anneka Wilson, only 17, from Springville. She was a junior at Salem Hills High School, on the drill team, and had a job at a place caring for old folks. She was into horseback riding and wanted to go into radiology after school. Her brother Hallister called her
“the best sister and human ever,”
Always kind but with that stubborn streak.
The other was Leo Shepherd, 18, from Payson. He’d just finished high school and was working as a welder. His dream was to do an LDS mission, and he adored his family always messing around with his little nieces and nephews. His sister Shantell Shepherd Hansen said,
“Two souls that lit up everything… It gives me a tiny bit of peace knowing they went out together.”
They’d been dating for three years and were celebrating their anniversary. That night, they were driving up to Wilson’s aunt’s farm in Idaho for Thanksgiving. Family was everything to both of them.
People in Springville and Payson have come together with candlelight vigils, and there’s flowers piled up at the crash site. GoFundMe pages for the families have pulled in more than $155,000 so far to help with funerals and whatever else they need.
Jimenez is looking at heavy charges two counts of automobile homicide that’s a second-degree felony for killing someone while driving like an idiot or buzzed plus DUI, wrong-way driving, having an open container, and breaking rules on his learner’s permit by driving alone. He’s sitting in Salt Lake County Jail with no bail.
A quick breath test pegged his blood alcohol at 0.138, way over Utah’s super-strict 0.05 limit like almost three times. Court papers say he admitted to downing
“two shots and a couple beers”
And even knew he
“didn’t feel safe”
Behind the wheel. Of course, this is all alleged until the lab results come back.
There was a press conference by Utah Highway Patrol on November 30, with officers up at the podium showing pics of the victims, diagrams of the wreck, and overlays of the mangled cars. It was a short 55-second video clip, made for phones with subtitles, and the mood was heavy.
One cop said it was “one of the worst” he’d ever dealt with. He mentioned another wrong-way driver got pulled over close by, which stopped things from getting even worse. They showed happy photos of Anneka and Leo to really drive home what was lost.
Utah deals with over 200 wrong-way drivers a year, but through August 2025, there’d only been 10 reported. These kinds of crashes are 12 times deadlier than regular ones. I-15 is the worst stretch in the state because of all the speed and traffic.
The state’s 0.05 BAC rule, toughest in the country, has dropped fatal crashes by around 20% since 2018, according to NHTSA. They’re ramping up DUI checks, especially around holidays. Stuff like thermal cameras and alerts on ramps are in the works to catch wrong-way folks sooner.
On social media, the story’s blown up with over 357,000 views lots of sad messages, but also some nasty, unproven stuff about immigrants because of the guy’s name. That kind of talk just stirs up hate without facts.
This mess is a stark reminder of something we could totally prevent. Like Lt. Brian Peterson put it,
“These were two amazing young kids with their whole lives in front of them, gone because somebody decided to drink and drive the wrong way.”
The families are pushing for real change: Hallister Wilson said,
“We’ve lost two incredible young people to another DUI, and we gotta do something.”
RJ Shepherd hopes it’s a wake-up call against boozing and driving.
Utah’s getting smarter with tech like infrared systems, but crashes like this show that cops alone can’t fix it. We all need to stay aware to keep people safe.
