ST. GEORGE — Tuesday afternoon, rescue crews rushed to stabilize the driver and his Isuzu Trooper after it had flown across oncoming traffic, and demolished a tree on the edge of the Kindred Nursing and Rehabilitation parking lot near the campus of Dixie State University. Rescue crews carefully removed the driver, and helped him walk to a nearby curb, while the car teetered on the trunk of the crushed tree on an embankment.
The driver was reported OK at the scene, and no one else was in the car. Rescue workers rushed to stabilize the teetering car that had come to rest a few feet from another car parked in the parking lot.
Without the tree, the trajectory of the car would have smashed into one of the parked cars, a witness Scott Hollingshead said. The nearby parked cars, incurred minor scratches from the branches of the smashed tree.
Members of the St. George Fire Department stabilized the car with struts and then tied the car off to their fire engine to make sure it didn’t roll off the tree and down the embankment into the parking lot, St. George Fire Chief Robert Stoker told St. George News at the scene.
Stoker was not sure what caused the accident, but said that the driver didn’t seem to have any injuries. “He was a little confused when we got here,” Stoker said. “He knew time and place and where he was headed but he couldn’t remember what happened.”
Before the accident occurred, the Trooper was headed straight towards Hollingshead who was also driving on 100 South. “I saw this guy come barreling at me, his wheel was going back and forth and he was unconscious,” Hollingshead said. “He wasn’t with it.” As the Trooper passed Hollingshead and across oncoming traffic, the driver of the Trooper came back to, and grabbed the wheel to try to control it but was too late, Hollingshead said.
At that point the Trooper flew over the curb and hammered the tree, Hollingshead said. “The tree was the life saver, in my opinion.”
The driver was not with it, and slurring his speech, Hollingshead said. “It looks to me like he had … either a stroke or a seizure,” he said. “I’ve seen seizures before and that’s exactly what it looked like.”
The car was stabilized until a tow truck appeared on scene and towed the Trooper away.
Members of the Gold Cross Ambulance, the St. George Police Department, and the St. George Fire Department assisted with the accident.
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