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ST. GEORGE — What started as a crash in the parking lot of the St. George Consolidated Communications Center on Monday quickly escalated into a life-or-death situation when an emergency dispatcher found an unresponsive driver and two small children in a car.
Officers and emergency personnel responded Monday to a call involving an overdose. They arrived at a parking lot on North 200 East to discover a crash scene, but a passenger reportedly had fled from the car and was later located and taken into custody by police, according to charging documents filed in support of the arrest.
The incident was captured on a police scanner recording that provided a detailed outline of the events.
And the actions taken a few minutes before the call to 911 likely saved the life of the driver who was found unresponsive and pulled from the vehicle.
St. George News contacted the St. George Consolidated Communications Center, which provides emergency dispatch coverage to the entire county, and spoke with Julie Packer, a 911 dispatcher who said minutes before the call, she was walking through the parking lot to head into work when she heard "the loudest thud" she had ever heard. When she turned around, she saw that a vehicle had crashed into her minivan parked in the lot.
