Woman escapes serious injury after rolling on slick I-15 roadway. What saved her?

A Toyota passenger car rests upside down after rolling off of Interstate 15, Washington County, Utah, Aug. 12, 2017 | Photo courtesy Utah Department of Public Safety, St. George News

ST. GEORGE — A woman suffered only minor injuries after rolling her car on Interstate 15 Saturday afternoon.

Emergency personnel respond to the scene of a rollover, Washington County, Utah, Aug. 12, 2017 | Photo courtesy Utah Department of Public Safety, St. George News

“On I-15 around mile marker 41 southbound, there was a single-vehicle rollover with one elderly female driver,” Utah Highway Patrol Trooper Grant Hintze said.

At approximately 2:10 p.m., responders were dispatched to the incident involving a red four-door Toyota passenger car.

The driver was traveling south and initially went off the road into the left shoulder then overcorrected, Hintze said, which sent the car across both southbound lanes and off the right shoulder where it rolled one and a half times.

“It appears that weather might have been a bit of a condition because it was raining – soaked the road pretty good.”

The car came to rest on its roof in the brush about 50 feet off the right shoulder.

“Witnesses and good Samaritans that saw the vehicle stopped and pulled the driver out of the vehicle from the trunk,” Hintze said.

Emergency personnel respond to the scene of a rollover, Washington County, Utah, Aug. 12, 2017 | Photo courtesy Utah Department of Public Safety, St. George News

She was examined by arriving medical personnel and suffered minor injuries, including some bruising on her shoulder and neck.

“What pretty much saved her life and prevented any injuries,” Hintze said, “was the airbags deployed and her wearing her seat belt.”

The car was heavily damaged and totaled in the rollover, and a wrecker towed it away.

Hintze personally drove the woman to awaiting family in St. George.

Utah Highway Patrol, the Utah Department of Natural Resources, Washington County Sheriff’s Office and New Harmony Fire District responded to the incident.

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, 2017, all rights reserved.

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1 Comment

  • comments August 13, 2017 at 11:15 am

    It really is the best reason to own a newer vehicle. They are built to withstand crashes. She was save by all the modern crash tech in the vehicle.

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