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KAYSVILLE — A man suffered a medical episode while driving on I-15 Wednesday, and a Utah Highway Patrol trooper was able to stop him by using a PIT maneuver.
About 8:20 a.m., the trooper observed a pickup truck “traveling at freeway speeds suddenly swerve into the barrier on I-15 in Kaysville,” according to UHP Sgt. Nick Street. “The truck continued to impact the center median barrier even losing a tire at one point.”
Dash-cam video released Wednesday afternoon from the trooper’s patrol car shows the trooper, who was parked in the freeway median, begin following the truck when it passes him straddling the yellow line between the HOV lane and the shoulder.
When the truck hits the barricade, the trooper activates his emergency lights and siren.
Despite one of its tires being blown out, the truck continued traveling along the freeway and didn’t respond to the trooper’s attempt to have him pull over, Street said. In the video, a tire can be seen rolling across the freeway after coming off the pickup.
The pickup is seen in the video swerving into traffic, hitting the concrete barricade a second time, and then continuing to move forward while up against the barrier.
In the video, the pickup continues to swerve at a low speed between lanes. Another trooper can be seen ahead blocking off the freeway. That’s when the trooper who was trying to stop the truck uses a “modified PIT maneuver,” Street said, which involved the trooper using his patrol car to bump the other vehicle, causing it to spin out and stop.
Not knowing initially what was going on, troopers can be heard on the video ordering the man out of his truck. First they have him roll down the window and drop his keys onto the road. The man is seen in the video moving very slowly but complying with their orders. The video ends with the driver getting out of his truck with his hands raised.
But once troopers were able to more thoroughly investigate, they realized the driver was having an unknown medical episode, Street said. The freeway was temporarily shut down as crews got the vehicles off to the shoulder and called for paramedics to take the man to a local hospital where Street said he is now stable.
