An accident caused by a wrong way driver that left three people injured on the I-15. Nov. 20, 2018. (Utah Highway Patrol)
In just five days, Utah Highway Patrol officers have responded to the scenes of six separate incidents involving drivers traveling down the wrong side of the road.
So far, at least 11 people have injured in the crashes caused by the wrong way drivers, including two police officers.
A driver had serious injuries after a wrong-way crash on I-15 near Orem late Friday night. (Photo: Utah Highway Patrol)
The chaos began early on Friday, Nov. 16, when a drunk driver was arrested for traveling down the wrong lane of the I-215. A UHP trooper was forced to perform a PIT maneuver to get the driver to stop, using his own vehicle to send the drunk driver into a skid and immobilize his vehicle before anyone got hurt.
But before the day was over, troopers were called to the scenes of two more wrong-way drivers. One was an 80-year-old woman who’d accidentally gone north on the southbound I-15, who troopers were able to stop before anyone could be harmed.
They weren’t able to reach another one, though, in time. A driver was forced to swerve out of the way of an oncoming car barreling down the I-15. They managed to get out of the way in time to avoid a lethal head-on collision, but their car rolled over off the freeway in the process. Fortunately, nobody was injured.
On Monday, Nov. 19, another elderly woman found herself driving the wrong way down the interstate, this time on the I-84. She drove for three miles in the wrong lane before troopers were able to pull her over.
And then, on Tuesday at 2:20 AM, an SUV driving the wrong way down I-15 smashed head first into a Ford Econoline, injuring both drivers.
That accident eventually lead to a second one. While the police set up road flares and worked to get the drivers safely out of their cars, a careless driver hit a Kaysville officer, leaving her with a hurt knee and a possible concussion.
Later that same day, an elderly man driving north on Bangerter Highway’s southbound lane struck a police officer’s car and a civilian’s minivan.
Miraculously, in all six accidents, nobody was killed. So far, though, police believe that at least 11 people have been injured.
Police are urging drivers to use caution on the roads.
As terrible as these accidents are, they aren’t an anomaly in Utah’s history. Thanksgiving can be a dangerous time to hit the roads. According to Utah Highway Patrol, during the Thanksgiving holidays of 2017, 13 people died on Utah’s roads.
KSL Newsradio’s Dave Noriega and special guest Mary Richards talked about this issue on the air today and why Utah sees so many drivers headed down the wrong lane.
If you missed the show live, you can still hear what they had to say on the Dave & Dujanovic podcast.
Dave & Dujanovic can be heard weekdays from 9 a.m. to noon on KSL Newsradio. Users can find the show on the KSL Newsradio website and app, as well as Apple Podcasts and Google Play.
