This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2017, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.

A New Mexico man is dead after crashing a semi-truck near Moab on Wednesday night.

The 27-year-old man, identified as Simon Ashe, was driving south on U.S. Highway 191, just north of Arches National Park, when the truck drifted onto the right shoulder of a curve near mile marker 132 just before 7:30 p.m., a Utah Highway Patrol news release said.

The semi was unable to negotiate the curve, the release said, and struck the rock wall of a mountain side.

Ashe was ejected through the front windshield, the release said. A trooper who arrived at the scene located his body and pronounced him dead.

A witness told troopers the truck was traveling at a "higher rate of speed" down the canyon.

Police found no signs that alcohol or drugs were a factor in the preliminary investigation. The truck was carrying onions to New Mexico.

Twitter: @mnoblenews