Dash cam footage shows tow truck driver being hit (UT)

[TowNews]

Dash cam footage shows tow truck driver being hit in Spanish Fork Canyon, UHP trooper saves his life

 

SPANISH FORK, Utah -- Dashcam video shows the moments a vehicle hit a tow truck in Spanish Fork Canyon Sunday night, critically injuring the driver and a passenger of the car.

According to the Utah Highway Patrol, the crash occurred just after 8 p.m. on US 6 near mile marker 193.

A UHP trooper was on scene providing traffic control as a tow truck pulled a vehicle out of a ditch after an earlier slide-off.

The driver of a northbound vehicle lost control, crossed the median and slid into the front end of the tow truck, impacting the truck with the front, passenger side of the car.

The 45-year-old woman riding as a passenger in that car suffered critical injuries.

The driver of the tow truck was at the back of the vehicle and suffered fractures to both legs, including a compound fracture the trooper treated with a tourniquet.

UHP Trooper Kerry Ball described saving the man's life in an interview with Fox 13 Monday night.

 

RESOURCE LINK with video

[TowNews]

SPANISH FORK, Utah -- A tow truck driver is recovering at Utah Valley Hospital in Provo after a crash in Spanish Fork Canyon, but doctors say he wouldn’t even be alive it wasn’t for the quick actions of a Utah Highway Patrol Trooper.

“We were at [mile post] 193 which is about half way up the canyon,” said UHP Trooper Kerry Ball.

On the stretch of Highway 6 just after 8 p.m. Sunday night a silver car hit a patch of ice and slid off into a ditch. Ball and a tow truck driver were able to get the car out but just as they were getting ready to leave they heard tires screeching. A black vehicle lost control after hitting an icy patch on the road.

“It’s one of those oh no moments, 'is that car coming at me? Is that car coming at the tow truck driver? Is he coming at the other car,'” Ball asked.

Ball turned around just in time to see the car slam into the tow truck.

“Your heart sinks into your stomach,” Ball said.

The car pushed the massive vehicle into the tow truck driver, officials with UHP said.

“It basically just dropped him straight to the ground,” Ball said.

Ball rushed over to the man who had fractures to both legs, including a compound fracture and he was bleeding out. It was a moment when minutes mattered but life flight was a half hour away. Ball wrapped a tourniquet around the man’s leg, and soon the bleeding finally stopped.

“That tourniquet did save his life,” Ball said.

In the last 24 hours, that moment has replayed in his mind, knowing this could have been a lot worse.

“That could have been life changing had I not been there,” Ball said.

 

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RESOURCE LINK with video

[rreschran]

Congratulations and thank you are in order to trooper Ball for having the knowledge and foresight to apply the tourniquet to the tower's bleeding leg.    R.