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Team CoverageInvestigators say the driver of a truck is responsible for several highway collisions, a dangerous chase, and injuries, including one to a trooper.
Driving under the influence will be one of the charges he'll likely face, but it wasn't alcohol. Troopers found several prescription pill bottles in the man's truck. The Utah Highway Patrol says it's a growing problem.
In Utah, DUI statistics are recorded in two categories: alcohol, and then everything else. Prescription medications fit under that everything else category. So we don't have numbers to show how big the problem is. But troopers say this accident shows how dangerous the problem can be.
It started on I-15 southbound in Davis County. Police received calls from motorists reporting a reckless driver. The first report of an accident came in just after 11:15 a.m. on southbound Interstate 15 at 1000 North. A short time later another accident was reported on I-15 and 900 West. In both cases the truck responsible was said to be sideswiping other vehicles.
By the time troopers caught up with the gray truck, they had received several calls stating that the vehicle was all over the road. One person was taken to a hospital with minor injuries as a result of one of the crashes.
A third incident was reported on 5300 South and I-15. The driver was apparently swerving in and out of lanes on the freeway. The man, in his 20s or early 30s, hit several cars with his truck. Mindy Taylor saw the driver near 4500 South.
She said, "He looked like he was getting a little too close. I thought, what's this guy doing? Then he hit our back window and he just kept going."
"I looked over at him, trying to get his attention, saying, ‘You know you just hit me?' I was honking at him, and he was just looking straight ahead," she continued.
Dashcam video shows the driver failed to pull over and almost caused several more accidents before finally coming to a stop at Union Park and I-215. Troopers ordered him out of the truck.
UHP Trooper Cameron Roden said, "As they pulled over they did go to gunpoint on the individual and were giving him commands to exit the vehicle. He was not listening to commands."
As troopers took the man out of the truck, which was still in drive, the vehicle ran over a trooper's foot and hit a patrol car. Roden said the man was "just incoherent, not really knowing what's going on."
Troopers found more than 20 pill bottles inside the truck, ranging from pain killers to sleep aids.
"Did you not see about a million cop cars behind you?" they asked.
"No, I saw two," was the answer.
"And did you not see that you hit two cars?" they also asked.
The driver told troopers he didn't even remember what happened.
Mindy Taylor said, "I was shaking. I don't get in accidents that often, so I was really scared. I'm lucky he didn't push me into the median because it could have ended up a lot worse."
The trooper who was injured suffered a severe sprained ankle and some possible ligament damage.
Roden said, "He (the truck driver) could have caused a lot more accidents, you know, if not fatalities."
Troopers say the driver of the truck was taking medication because he recently had surgery. He has not yet been booked into jail because of his medical condition.
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