Seven members of a Spring City family were injured Sunday when a balcony at their home collapsed, dropping them about 20 feet to the ground below.

Adam Burningham, who teaches at Snow College; his wife, Deirdre; and five of their nine children were hurt when the accident occurred about 9:30 p.m. on Sunday, said Clarke Christensen, Spring City’s police/fire chief.

“It was a significant fall, and all seven members of the Burningham family had to be transported to the hospital,” he said. Injuries include broken legs and arms, a fractured back and internal injuries. The injured family members included children ranging in age from about 10 to late teens to their parents.

By Monday, all but one had been released from the hospital. “Considering the fall and everything else, they were very, very lucky,” said Christensen, who added that it appeared the accident was a “structural failure” caused by “poor construction.”

Several members of the family are members of the Spring City Volunteer Fire Department; four of them had “just finished EMT training, which they were able to employ until other medical assistance arrived,” Christensen said.

Spring City, the Sanpete County Sheriff’s Office, the Utah Highway Patrol and North Sanpete Ambulance all responded to the accident.

Friends of the family have started a GoFundMe page to help pay the medical bills. The Das Cafe in Spring City — where several members of the family have worked — is also planning a fundraising dinner; details are pending.

Training to be a truck driver was a way for this self-described “country girl” to learn new skills that she hoped to use to haul hay.

In the summer of 2017, she signed up to train with C.R. England Trucking — a Utah company that had good reviews and was recruiting women.

After several weeks of classroom instruction, the Juab County woman was ready to move into working one-on-one with a driver in his truck. But within hours of meeting Thorpe Steele, he violently raped her in the cramped sleeping area in the back of his tractor-trailer. He would later be charged and convicted. He’s in prison.

Now, this Utah woman is suing the trucking company, alleging it should have done more to protect her. Steele had a history of sexual assault complaints — including from a woman who said he groped her during a bus driver instruction course in Texas — yet C.R. England still hired him.

The traumatic experience was made worse, the Utah woman said, when the trucking company barraged her with phone calls, emails and texts insisting that she either come back to the training program just days after she was raped — or pay back the money it had loaned her for the full tuition.

“They basically put me in danger the moment they hired my attacker,” she said. “C.R. England just swept it under the rug and didn’t take care of the problem.”

‘They made me relive it’

After they first met, Steele described basic instructions as they sat side by side in his tractor-trailer, still parked in the C.R. England Trucking lot in Salt Lake County. He told her about the truck’s log, how to run the truck and his rules.

But then, he started showing the woman several knives he had stashed, according to the lawsuit filed Monday. Knives, he told her, did more harm than guns.

And as he was showing her the small sleeping quarters, he told her that “what happens in the truck, stays in the truck.” He then grabbed her from behind and raped her.

After Steele left, the woman got out of the truck and told some employees what had happened. She said management responded by putting her in a small, windowless room and asked if she wanted the police to be called.

She sat there, alone and in pain, for what felt like “forever” until the police came. She didn’t know where Steele was or if he could come find her.

“Nobody was there to be with me and protect me,” she said in a recent interview. “They threw me in a room, and I didn’t feel protected at all.”

The woman said she was not allowed to leave until she filled out a statement for the company.

It was a few days later when the constant stream of phone calls, texts and emails started. The trucking company wanted her to return that Monday, she was told, or she’d have to pay it back for her training. One human resources employee accused her of making up the sexual assault so she could leave the training program, according to the lawsuit.

She remembers still being in pain from the sexual assault as the calls kept coming.

“They made me relive it basically every time that they brought it up,” she said.

But she couldn’t go back. It was too traumatizing.

Ultimately, the communication stopped after the trucking company had the woman sign a release of claims and liability — a document that the woman’s attorney argues is not enforceable.

C.R. England Trucking did not immediately respond to a request for comment Monday.

‘A sexual predator’

Steele was charged later that year with rape and forcible sodomy. In January, a jury found him guilty of both charges and months later, he was sentenced to a five-year-to-life prison term.

He is appealing his conviction, according to court records.

As his case moved through the court system, two other women wrote statements saying that Steele had groped them years earlier when he was living in Texas and working as a school bus driver.

The woman’s lawsuit alleges C.R. England Trucking should have done a more thorough job combing through his past before hiring him and putting him in a position of power. Her attorney, Michael Young, alleges in the court filing that other female trucker trainees in Utah had complained about improper contact and threats from Steele before he sexually assaulted his client.

“C.R. England hired a sexual predator to train and educate students in their driving program,” Young said in a statement to The Salt Lake Tribune. “Had C.R. England exercised even the slightest amount of care, they would have learned this man had a history of predatory behavior and that he should not have ever been placed in a position of trust and authority. Unfortunately, when the inevitable happened and their trainer raped my client, this billion-dollar company responded by accusing my client of fabricating the entire story and then pressured and bullied her into signing a release in an effort to protect the company from liability.”

The Tribune generally does not identify victims of sexual assault.

The woman said her assault has led to three wasted years, but she sees her lawsuit as a way to stand up for herself.

The experience has left her living in fear and anxiety. She’s not the bubbly person she once was, and it’s affected her relationship with her wife and their daughter.

“They need to be held accountable for what’s going on and not just sweep it under the rug,” she said. “So I want to do this for the other women and for myself.”

Salt Lakers will have to look farther north to see fireworks this Independence Day.

The Gateway retail and entertainment complex on the west edge of downtown Salt Lake City has announced it will throw a celebration on Thursday, July 4, that will include two stages featuring live bands, DJs and karaoke, roaming magicians and buskers — and fireworks at 10 p.m.

“We want to start a new Fourth of July tradition that our entire community can look forward to every year,” Jacklyn Briggs, The Gateway’s marketing director, said in a statement. “It’s going to be one big block party.”

Salt Lake City lost its traditional fireworks location last summer, when the Sugar House Chamber of Commerce canceled the gala display at Sugar House Park. The event there had struggled for several years, after the city cut off funding following the 2009 holiday. The Sugar House Chamber had organized the fireworks at the park for the last few years, but pulled out because of a lack of available staff.

The event at The Gateway — along 400 West between 50 North and 200 South — starts at 4 p.m. on July 4, and goes until the fireworks go off at 10 p.m. It will be free to the public.

Live music will be provided on the north stage by two local bands: Indie-rock band The Backseat Lovers at 6 p.m., and Parkway Avenue at 8 p.m. Four DJs have been booked: DJ Jared, 4 to 6 p.m. on the north stage; DJ Logic, 4 to 6 p.m. on the south stage; DJ Jarvicious at 7 p.m. on the north stage, and DJ Bangarang, at 9 p.m. on the north stage. Karaoke will be available from 6 to 10 p.m. on the south stage.

A live art installation, “What’s Your American Dream,” will be on display, and magicians and buskers will perform around the shopping center. Food will be available at The Gateway’s restaurants, as well as food trucks at the Olympic Legacy Plaza. For people over 21, craft beer from Bohemian Brewery and cocktails from Five Wives Vodka will be for sale.

The Gateway won’t be the only place in Salt Lake City to have fireworks on the Fourth. The annual Independence Day gathering at Jordan Park, at 1000 S. 900 West, is still happening. And the Salt Lake Bees will have fireworks at Smith’s Ballpark, at 77 W. 1300 South, after its games against the El Paso Chihuahuas on July 4, 5 and 6.