At least one person, a 5-year-old boy, was killed and several others were hospitalized with injuries.

The boy died about 1 p.m. when the westbound pickup truck driven by his mother fishtailed on a slickened Interstate 80 near Tooele then rolled off the highway. His mother and brother were taken to a nearby hospital with minor injuries, said Utah Highway Patrol Trooper Jeff Nigbur.

The storm, augmented later by moisture from the Great Salt Lake, was expected to linger into the morning from Ogden to Nephi, possibly making this morning commute a mess. It was expected to be mostly gone by midday.

Gaining strength as the afternoon progressed, the storm pounded Davis, Weber and Box Elder counties with freezing temperatures and several inches of snow.

By 4:30 p.m., the need for roadside assistance had grown so great that at least one call to 911 near North Salt Lake went unanswered.

The call was for Nicholas Szczucki, who jumped from the median between Interstate 15 and southbound U.S. Highway 89 collector to flag down some help. The 23-year-old North Salt Lake man, a Hill Air Force Base aircraft mechanic, had wrapped his 2006 Mitsubishi Eclipse around a light pole after trying desperately to keep it from sliding into oncoming traffic.

"The car just shifted. I hit the guardrail and crossed the road," Szczucki said. The Pennsylvania native said he believed his arm was broken. His head hurt, and he was disoriented. It took a call directly to Utah Highway Patrol to summon paramedics, who ushered Szczucki to a nearby hospital.

Others driving along I-15 on Wednesday afternoon got well acquainted with each other when two stretches of the interstate turned to ice and caused massive headaches for commuters in the form of multiple crashes.

Northbound I-15 was closed around 12:30 p.m. near Willard Bay when four semi trailer trucks and several vehicles were caught on a sheet of ice and crashed, said UHP Trooper Jeff Nigbur. Injuries were minor but the freeway was closed for about four hours as crews worked to remove the wreckage and make the road safe for travel.

Northbound I-15 was closed for several blocks north of Parrish Lane in Centerville about 2 p.m. after more than 20 cars and several semis crashed. The interstate was opened around 4 p.m., but the backlog of northbound traffic sent commuters into Bountiful, clogging Highway 89, Main Street and 400 West.

Colder-than-usual temperatures made conditions different than drivers are accustomed to, said National Weather Service lead forecaster Pete Wilensky.

When it snows, more often than not, temperatures hover around freezing or above. But, on Wednesday, the temperatures were colder. The daytime high at Salt Lake City International Airport reached just 29 degrees but that was in the late morning. From there, the temperature dropped, hitting 21 by 5 p.m.

That made the snow stick to the roads better than it normally does.

"This was an exceptionally cold system," Wilensky said.

Mary Alice Morgan was among a group of motorists not only caught off-guard by the weather but by the slant of the road where U.S. 89 branches to 500 West in Bountiful. Drivers heading north and south found themselves sliding to the west, some criss-crossing each other in a desperate choreography to avoid a collision.

Though uninjured, Morgan was not amused by her slide into a curb. "Why do you think I moved to Nevada?" she said.

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Tribune reporter Justin Hill contributed to this story.

Storm score:

Traffic accident tallies

UHP in S.L. County: 265

Utah County: 34

WVC police: about 50

S.L. Co. Sheriff's Office: 66

SLC Police: 74

Davis County Sheriff's Office: 100

UHP in Davis Co.: 100