ST. GEORGE — The only things stopping a truck from taking a 20-foot plunge into a parking lot after a crash on Thursday was a metal fence and a patch of dirt.
The Ford pickup truck was traveling west on Red Hills Parkway and had just passed through the intersection of 1000 East at about 4:15 p.m. when the man driving the vehicle suffered an unknown medical condition and started to drive into oncoming traffic, St. George Police officer Ken Childs said.
The truck rammed into an eastbound Ford sedan that was stopped at the traffic light.
“(The passenger) was yelling at him and he wasn’t responding,” Childs said. “The truck pushed across both lanes and then continued into the fence where he was finally able to come to a stop and start responding to his passenger.”
On the other side of the fence, which was damaged by the truck, was the 20-foot drop into the lower parking lot of Motel 6. Although the truck was close to the drop, Childs said he didn’t believe the truck was at risk of going over the edge.
“He slowed down enough that he just hit the fence,” Childs said. “As big as that truck is, it’d go right through that fence with no problem. I think he slowed down enough and was coming to a skidding stop so he just damaged the fence.”
A Gold Cross ambulance responded to the scene, but there were only minor injuries in the occupants of both vehicles so no one was transported to the hospital. The crash blocked both lanes of eastbound traffic on Red Hills Parkway before the cars were able to be towed away.
No citations were issued, but the driver of the truck will need to be scheduled for a driver’s license retest for the medical issue, Childs said.
This report is based on preliminary information provided by law enforcement and may not contain the full scope of findings.
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