ST. GEORGE — Utah Highway Patrol troopers responded to a single-vehicle crash Monday morning on a section of Interstate 15 where the median’s cable barriers prevented the possibility of a larger incident.
At approximately 10 a.m., highway patrol was advised of a crash on northbound I-15 in the area of mile marker 3, UHP Trooper Joe Pastor told St. George News.
The 34-year-old male driver of a 2002 Honda Accord lost control and went off the left side of the freeway into the median and collided with the cable barrier and spun off it, Pastor said.
At the time of this report, the reason the driver lost control is unknown.
The Utah Department of Transportation utilizes a cable barrier – or wire rope safety barrier – along the median on that stretch of freeway.
Todd Abbott, UDOT’s Incident Management Team manager said the cable did what it was designed to do, “which is restrain a vehicle and keep it from jumping into the opposite lanes of traffic.”
Abbott said they like the cable barrier as it is effective and relatively cost efficient.
Replacing the damaged section of cable barrier posts will likely cost less than $1,000, Abbott said, including parts and installation.
Most importantly, they prevent larger accidents and potentially save lives.
Pastor said without the barrier, the situation could have been “devastating.”
“We would have had a northbound vehicle that would have gone into southbound oncoming traffic,” Pastor said.
In addition to UHP troopers, St. George Fire and Gold Cross Ambulance personnel responded to the incident. Emergency personnel closed a small section of the left two lanes on southbound I-15 just before Exit 2, which slowed but did not stop the flow of southbound traffic.
The driver of the vehicle refused medical transport and seemed to be OK, albeit upset about the crash, Pastor said.
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