Pregnant woman transported by Life Flight from accident on Old Highway 91

ST. GEORGE — A pregnant woman was transported by Intermountain Life Flight to Dixie Regional Medical Center following a two-vehicle head-on collision on Old Highway 91 Sunday afternoon.

Scene of a two-vehicle head-on collision near mile marker 7 on Old Highway 91, Utah, Dec. 8, 2019 | Photo courtesy of Santa Clara/ Ivins Fire Chief Randy Hancey, St. George News

Firefighters from the Santa Clara/Ivins Fire Department were alerted to an accident near the Utah-Arizona border at approximately 4 p.m. Fire Chief Randy Hancey said the accident happened close to a dangerous blind curve by mile marker 7.

When first responders arrived, they found a red Subaru station wagon with its front end destroyed stuck in the middle of the roadway and a Chevy four-wheel drive truck pulled off to one side, slammed into some bushes. Because initial reports indicated that a pregnant woman was trapped in the Subaru, first responders rushed to the scene with extrication equipment on standby. However, according to Hancey, just a little manual force opened the door and they quickly got her out of the vehicle.

Because of the nature of her injuries and condition, Intermountain Life Flight was called and she was transported to Dixie Regional Medical Center for evaluation.

The driver of the Subaru also had to be manually extricated and was placed on a backboard and removed from the vehicle. The driver of the Chevy truck also suffered injuries as a result of the collision.

Scene of a two-vehicle head-on collision near mile marker 7 on Old Highway 91, Utah, Dec. 8, 2019 | Photo courtesy of Santa Clara/ Ivins Fire Chief Randy Hancey, St. George News

From what Hancey could tell, all of the injuries were non-life threatening and the drivers were transported by ambulance to Dixie Regional Medical Center.

“There’s some pretty mean turns right there coming up over the hill,” he said, adding that it was very fortunate that it wasn’t a worse accident. “People get going too fast. People think they can still go the same speed but you need to slow down, choose caution.”

At the time of this report, the cause of the accident was unknown and deputies from the Washington County Sheriff’s office were on-site to help clear the accident and investigate.

Because of the increase in travelers on Old Highway 91 due to the ongoing construction on Interstate 15 in the Virgin River Gorge, Hancey said there have been several accidents in that same area because of those turns. With all of the steep and blind turns out on that stretch of road, he advised people slow down, especially when weather is bad.

“We’re very fortunate that it didn’t end up a fatality,” Hancey said. “Just be careful out there because it’s not really highway speed with all those turns on Highway 91.”

Copyright St. George News, SaintGeorgeUtah.com LLC, 2019, all rights reserved.

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