Utah Highway Patrol Troopers are usually the first to respond to Utah accidents, but in this weather, there is a pattern of them becoming the victims of collisions.
Just recently, this past weekend, Lt. Lee Perry was on the side of a road helping a driver who had slid, when an oncoming car crashed into his. There had been a warning beep of a horn, giving Perry just enough time to jump out of the way. The back of his car swung around, hit him in the knees, and knocked him over.
“I’m doing OK, I really am,” Perry said. “I’m doing a lot better than I would have been if the guy hadn’t honked his horn.”
This year alone, Perry is the seventh trooper that has been hit.
Utah Highway Patrol Lt. David Brooks said, “We’re very vulnerable out there on the side of the road” and Trooper Steven Winward said, “Not only do drivers put our lives at risk but they put their lives at risk. It’s better to go slow and make it there safely rather than not make it there at all.”
Brooks said that it’s all about drivers being conscious of the road conditions and adjusting their speed.
Utah drivers, remember that Utah state law says that when there is a trooper or someone off on the side of the road you are required to slow down and move your car one lane over. Understandably, troopers say they are going to more strictly enforce this law!