Driver walks away from I-15 rollover uninjured after falling asleep at wheel

Stock image | Photo by Barbol88/iStock/Getty Images Plus, St. George News

WASHINGTON COUNTY — In the second rollover in the Southern Utah area involving a driver falling asleep at the wheel in a single day, a man was spared from injury thanks in large part to seat belt use.

Emergency personnel responded to the single-vehicle rollover Monday at 5 a.m. on southbound Interstate 15 near Exit 13.

The man fell asleep as we was driving on the freeway, at which point vehicle began to drift off the road, Utah Highway Patrol trooper Jim Jessop said.

By the time the driver woke up, it was too late to regain control of the vehicle, Jessop said, explaining that it rolled an undetermined amount of times before landing in the median.

Medical personnel responded to the crash as a precaution, but the driver declined treatment.

“He walked away without a scratch,” Jessop said, noting that he was properly restrained with a seat belt and that airbags deployed in the vehicle.

No citations were issued, Jessop said.

The crash did not impact traffic, Jessop said, as it was off the road in the median. A wrecker arrived on scene to tow away the rolled vehicle.

The noninjurious outcome for the properly-buckled driver is contrasted by another I-15 rollover that occurred a couple hours earlier less than 20 miles away in the Virgin River Gorge. In that rollover, the driver, who was not wearing a seat belt, suffered a serious neck injury.

Read more: Driver hospitalized after falling asleep at wheel, crashing in Gorge

This report is based on preliminary information provided by law enforcement and may not contain the full scope of findings.

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Copyright St. George News, SaintGeorgeUtah.com LLC, 2018, all rights reserved.

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3 Comments

  • Dusty November 5, 2018 at 10:00 pm

    DebraGubler, if you don’t like the “negative” stories, don’t read them. Only read the happy, feel good stories. Maybe you ought to go to the library and read fairy tales, use a dictionary, or even, I don’t know, take a typing class.

  • KR567 November 6, 2018 at 10:00 am

    I enjoyed reading this article and like the picture too keep’em coming

  • Carpe Diem November 6, 2018 at 12:05 pm

    Dumb luck, but I gotsta know, what kind of car was he driving?

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