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COALVILLE — “Holy crap!” Rebecka Pearson said at seeing photos taken by Utah Highway Patrol troopers of the car her husband was driving early Thursday morning.
Keenan Pearson was headed from work to his home in Coalville when he hit an icy patch on an overpass on I-80 at Parleys Summit. In the lane in front of him was another car that had spun out on the ice. His car plowed into it.
“We were coming [from the opposite] way and we could see it on the other side of the barrier,” UHP trooper Landon Middaugh said Monday. “They were all over the place in the lane.”
It was a bad chain of events. Pearson had gotten out of his car to help the woman he had just collided with. Both cars had come to rest in the left lanes. But more collisions were still to come.
“He turned and another car was coming at them sideways and that's when he pushed her out of the way,” said Rebecka Pearson, Keenan’s wife. “He was pinned against the car for a moment.”
Trooper Middaugh found Keenan Pearson on the pavement with severe leg injuries. “He was in very bad shape. He was laying in the roadway when I arrived and I noticed he had severe injuries to his lower leg.”
Risking his life, Pearson pushed the woman out of the way of the oncoming vehicle. “He was able to actually, I believe, save her from serious injuries if not death,” Middaugh said.
Rebecka Pearson says University of Utah Hospital called her several hours after the accident, saying Keenan’s right leg was so badly damaged it needed to be amputated. He had already OK’d the surgery, and she hadn’t even arrived at the hospital yet. Doctors told her the tendons, ligaments, the bone, muscles were beyond repair. “They said we can't do anything,” Rebecka Pearson said. “And I'm like OK, if he's OK with it, then I'm OK with it, just do what you got to do, just don't let him lose the other one.”
A GoFundMe account* has been set up to help with upcoming medical bills. There will be many, as Keenan still has more surgeries ahead — he had his fourth one on Friday. It’s likely he’ll remain hospitalized for many weeks.
“I have a cousin who works here and she says if he's out by November then he's doing really well,” Rebecka said.
Middaugh advises motorists to get their vehicles to the side of the road if possible after an accident. “But if you're not able to or if your car is disabled, we do ask that you stay in your vehicle with your seat belt on and call 911, because the area where you crashed is the area where the next person is going to crash as well.”
It was an unfortunate accident on an icy patch of road. And a young father, who will turn 28 in a couple of weeks, only wanted to help someone get out of harm’s way. Rebecka Pearson says she’s not surprised that her husband did what he did early Thursday morning.
“He loves helping people, he just gives, gives, gives,” she said.
And he almost gave his life.
*KSL.com does not assure that the monies deposited to the accounts will be applied for the benefit of the persons named as beneficiaries. If you are considering a deposit to the account, you should consult your own advisors and otherwise proceed at your own risk.
