Coroner IDs woman hit, killed by semitrailer on I-15 near Nevada-California border

A California woman died after she was hit by a semitrailer on Interstate 15 south of Jean late Sunday.

The woman, Dananjani Silva, 25, of Redlands, California, was in traffic when she was struck, police said. The county coroner’s office ruled her death a suicide.

Nevada Highway Patrol had blocked off southbound I-15 near mile marker 8 after Silva was hit and killed about 11:30 p.m., trooper Chelsea Stuenkel said. The interstate reopened about 5:15 a.m.

Stuenkel said troopers were still looking for the semitrailer, which was possibly heading to California. No description was available Monday.

As midnight approached, diverted traffic spilled onto Goodsprings Road near Jean. Dozens of cars and trucks parked along both sides of the road and the offramp to Goodsprings. Drivers and passengers slept, walked their dogs and waited out the crash, many for several hours.

Trooper Robert Miller said unrelated road construction along Sandy Valley Road and Las Vegas Boulevard South on either side of Goodsprings blocked drivers from finding alternative routes south. For many drivers heading to California, their two options were to wait the crash out or loop around north toward Las Vegas and take U.S. Highway 95 south.

Don Shackley was on his way to Los Angeles for a scheduled surgery for his daughter, he said. She often receives treatment at Children’s Hospital Los Angeles, he said.

“We’re pretty good at this trip so we know how to plan out the hours,” Shackley said.

While her surgery was not life-or-death, he said it was “very important” his 4-year-old daughter get to Los Angeles. Shackley said his family has planned this surgery, scheduled for 11 a.m. Monday, for the last six months, and if he could not get it rescheduled, he was considering catching a flight to Los Angeles instead.

“But you know what? That’s life,” Shackley said.

Cate Canava, 49, was on her way back from a trip to Salt Lake City with her friend, who she said had stage 4 breast cancer.

Canava said she was considering finding a hotel for the night rather than wait out the crash.

Leo Arterberry, a recent Nevada transplant from Los Angeles, smoked a cigarette in his car. He held out his phone with the navigation app Waze open.

“I got nothing,” he said, pointing to the map that failed to warn him of the crash.

“I’m just going to sit and wait,” Arterberry said about 2:15 a.m. “I don’t know how long I got to wait, but I’m (going to) wait it out.”

Contact Mike Shoro at mshoro@reviewjournal.com. Follow @mike_shoro on Twitter.