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MILLCREEK — A woman's car came to rest hanging from the guy wire of a power pole Tuesday morning after the woman swerved to avoid something in the road at 4500 S. and 957 East.
Jeris Herrera, 33, saw an unknown object in the road while headed west on 4500 South and swerved to avoid it, according to Lt. Justin Hoyal with the Unified Police Department.
"It looked like either a garbage can or the bottom of a construction barrier," Herrera said. "Whatever it was, I wish I would have just hit that."
When she realized she was headed into oncoming traffic, she swerved even further off the road.
"She went through three different yards, fences, bushes, mailboxes, garbage cans, and finally came to rest on the guy wire of a power pole," Hoyal said.
"I couldn't get my door out and I was up in the air and some very nice guy that I'd like to thank helped me out of my car," Herrera said.
It is unknown how fast Herrera was going at the time of the accident, but the distance can be attributed to little or no braking on the part of the driver, according to Hoyal.
She went through three different yards, fences, bushes, mailboxes, garbage cans, and finally came to rest on the guy wire of a power pole.
–Justin Hoyal
"Once I hit the curb and the airbags came out, I couldn't see anything," Herrera said. "That's why I went so far — I couldn't see anything once the airbag deployed."
The accident occurred at 8:40 a.m. Power was out in the area and 4500 South was closed between 900 and 1100 East until about 10:30 a.m. while Rocky Mountain Power assessed the damage and worked to restore electricity. There were no injuries.
Herrera was cited for investigation of careless driving due to committing three or more traffic violations in succession.
"As soon as the airbags went off, I don't recall what happened, really," Herrera said.
Her car had to be towed, but she's just grateful she's still standing.
"I'm glad there was nobody hurt. I feel bad about all the damage," she said.
A check of Utah court records shows Herrera has been in trouble before for traffic violations.
Herrera had a pretrial conference scheduled on Sept. 20 in South Weber Justice Court on a separate incident of driving with expired registration and possession of drug paraphernalia in August. Earlier this year she took a plea in abeyance to a similar charge of driving with expired registration in 2010.
In 2005, she pleaded no contest in Murray Justice Court to a reduced charge of reckless driving. She was originally charged with DUI, according to court records. She also pleaded no contest to improper lane change. In exchange, a driving on the wrong side of the road charge was dismissed.
Contributing: Pat Reavy, Sandra Yi
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