Utah Highway Patrol demonstrated how to secure a load properly after multiple vehicles hit a treadmill on the highway. Photo: Caitlin Burchill, KSL TV
SALT LAKE CITY — Troopers are urging people to secure their loads, after a crash Monday night with something that fell out of the back of a pickup truck onto I-15.
They say a woman lost control of her truck and hit the median on the I-15 collector ramp around 1700 south.
The treadmill flew out of the truck and onto the I-15 southbound lanes, causing several other cars to be damaged and sending the woman and a child to the hospital.
Last year, there were 26,000 calls to Utah Highway Patrol involving debris on the highway.
“We’ve pulled hot tubs out of the middle of the interstate. Couches, barbecues, dog crates — you name it, we’ve pulled it out of the middle of the road,” said Lt. Todd Royce.
“A lot of people think, ‘oh, I’m just going to load it and strap it down so the wind doesn’t blow it out.’ That’s not always the case. You have to think of, ‘what if I rear end a car – is that going to shift? Is that going to shift up to the cab? Is that going to hurt me or hurt people in, or if I get rear-ended, is it going to fall out the back,'” said Royce.