First responders come to the aid of a driver after his pickup plummeted off Interstate 15 in the Virgin River Gorge, Cedar Pocket, Arizona, Jan. 17, 2024 | Photo courtesy of Jeff Hunt, Beaver Dam/Littlefield Fire District, St. George News
ST. GEORGE — First responders said a Northern Utah man traveling to Las Vegas, Nevada, for work fell asleep at the wheel inside the Virgin River Gorge Wednesday morning, causing his new GMC pickup to tumble off Interstate 15.
The driver suffered what authorities said were severe but non-fatal injuries, including lacerations to his head and some back pain. He was transported to the hospital.
The crash happened at around 8:15 a.m. MST on the southbound side of I-15 at mile marker 16 near Cedar Pocket.
Jeff Hunt, the chief of the Beaver Dam/Littlefield Fire District, said emergency crews responded to the scene and that the man in his late 40s to early 50s had purchased the vehicle nine days before. The driver told authorities he had a “good night’s sleep,” breakfast and coffee at a St. George hotel before heading out for a business trip to Vegas.
But all he remembers is falling asleep and waking up to be pulled out of his vehicle.
“He fell asleep and took down the sign,” Hunt said of how the man’s vehicle ended up. “It went up the hill, then he went back down into the culvert on his roof.”
The site of the crash was reachable by road, and first responders found the vehicle belly-up with a large amount of debris strewn about from what Hunt said was a lot of cargo in the vehicle.
“When we pulled him out, he had a huge laceration on his head,” Hunt said, adding that once they got the bleeding under control, the victim was surprisingly coherent. ” You could have seen the whole skull.
“He wanted to walk to the ambulance. His only other complaint is his back hurt but if you rolled over all those times your back would hurt too. For what happened he should have been killed.”
Photo Gallery
First responders come to the aid of a driver after his pickup plummeted off Interstate 15 in the Virgin River Gorge, Cedar Pocket, Arizona, Jan. 17, 2024 | Photo courtesy of Jeff Hunt, Beaver Dam/Littlefield Fire District, St. George News
The pickup that plummeted off Interstate 15 in the Virgin River Gorge is moved up to a tow truck, Cedar Pocket, Arizona, Jan. 17, 2024 | Photo courtesy of Jeff Hunt, Beaver Dam/Littlefield Fire District, St. George News
Debris sits in the landscape after a pickup plummeted off Interstate 15 in the Virgin River Gorge, Cedar Pocket, Arizona, Jan. 17, 2024 | Photo courtesy of Jeff Hunt, Beaver Dam/Littlefield Fire District, St. George News
First responders come to the aid of a driver after his pickup plummeted off Interstate 15 in the Virgin River Gorge, Cedar Pocket, Arizona, Jan. 17, 2024 | Photo courtesy of Jeff Hunt, Beaver Dam/Littlefield Fire District, St. George News
First responders come to the aid of a driver after his pickup plummeted off Interstate 15 in the Virgin River Gorge, Cedar Pocket, Arizona, Jan. 17, 2024 | Photo courtesy of Jeff Hunt, Beaver Dam/Littlefield Fire District, St. George News
Copyright St. George News, SaintGeorgeUtah.com LLC, 2024, all rights reserved.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Chris Reed serves as a reporter for St. George News, where he has been honored with several awards from the Society of Professional Journalists for his work, including first-place accolades. He started his journalism career as a sports reporter and editor in Southern California where he once compared shoe sizes with Shaquille O'Neal and exchanged mix tapes with members of the Los Angeles Kings. After growing up in the San Fernando Valley learning karate skills from Mr. Miyagi and spending a decade in Las Vegas mostly avoiding the casinos, he came to St. George for love and married his soulmate, a lifetime Southern Utah resident. He is the proud father of two boys, his youngest a champion against both autism and Type 1 diabetes.