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SALT LAKE CITY — Jeff Reynolds' job can be scary any day. As a UDOT incident management supervisor, he and his crews protect crash scenes, and traffic can turn deadly for them in a second.
"It just seems like we're getting a lot of distracted drivers," he said, citing one of the biggest concerns they have when they safe-guard crash scenes.
But Reynolds said it's tough to warn the public when the public is not paying attention.
Two weeks ago, a trooper had cleared a crash in the westbound lanes near Lambs Canyon shortly after a snow storm had cleared through.
A Utah Highway Patrol trooper and two people were on the road in front of Reynolds' truck, when a vehicle started heading toward him.
"I looked in my rearview mirror and saw a vehicle coming at me," said Reynolds, who quickly anticipated the crash from the oncoming Toyota Highlander.
"I threw it into gear and punched it," he said. "As I was punching it, I tried to move over to the left."
He accelerated to absorb some of the energy and impact of the crash and moved to the left to get a glancing blow, rather than a direct hit.
The crash destroyed the SUV and sent that driver to the hospital in critical condition. Reynolds survived with a minor neck injury.
Protecting crash scenes in their incident management trucks is what they do every day, all day, Reynolds said. That exact scenario is one that he's played through his head hundreds of times.
"There's a lot of things going through your mind," he said. "But I think it comes back to muscle memory. I just did the right thing at the right time, and it worked out."
Reynolds credits training and a focus on safety for the positive outcome for all people involved. That day, he and his truck potentially saved several lives.
"If Jeff (Reynolds) hadn't been there, and this crash was in the very beginnings of it, there would've been a trooper standing out there, or Jeff may have been standing out there putting cones up," said Sgt. Blaine Robbins with the Utah Highway Patrol.
"The vehicle did what it was supposed to do," said Reynolds.
The injured driver of the SUV was recently released from the hospital, according to the UHP. The investigation into the crash is still ongoing.
"The worst case scenario happened," said Robbins. "But the best case scenario came true where everyone lived and walked away from it."
Reynolds felt fortunate to survive with only minor injuries. But he also asked the public to take more precautions.
"If they see our trucks out there with our message boards up and our cones out, just give us a little bit of room," he said. "Move over to the side and slowdown. We try to get out of there as fast as we can."
