ST. GEORGE — The driver of a passenger car is “incredibly lucky” following a rollover on the Arizona stretch of Interstate 15 Tuesday that backed up traffic leading into the Virgin River Gorge.

Sometime between 3:40 p.m. and 4 p.m. Arizona time, the 21-year-old driver of a dark green passenger car that was southbound on I-15 rolled the vehicle onto its top and slipped across the road until coming to a stop in the area of mile 19 at Cedar Pocket.

Beaver Dam-Littlefield Fire Chief Jeff Hunt, whose agency responded to the crash along with troopers from the Arizona Department of Safety, said the driver told him the steering in the car made a strange noise before it veered toward the center concrete divider on the roadway and clipped it. The car then veered back across the roadway into the guard rail on the other side.

The driver attempted to gain control of the car, but ended up over-correcting across the roadway and crashing into the center divider again. At this time, the car managed to tear off about 30 feet of the glare screen that sat on the top of the divider.

The car then rolled onto its top and slid across the road until coming to a stop.

“The kid was incredibly lucky,” Hunt said. “He came out of the car with just a scratch.”

The driver declined to be taken to a hospital by ambulance for medical evaluation.

While the overturned car and debris blocked both lanes of traffic, people were able to get by on the shoulder. Firefighters would soon end up using one of their firetrucks to pull the car closer to the side of the road in order to open up one of the traffic lanes, Hunt said.

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