Five years later, same accident, same message for drivers

BOUNTIFUL – What are the odds the same driver would be involved in the same accident five years apart? For one Utah Department of Transportation worker, that was his reality Monday morning. Brad Aven, a roadway safety specialist with UDOT, understands the dangers of his job. “Every day is a day you could possibly get hit,” Aven said. “You’ve always got to be watching over your shoulder.” Aven pulled over along Interstate 15 in Bountiful on Monday morning to help jumpstart a driver’s car and give them some fuel. That’s when he heard a crash. “I looked up and saw my car was hit,” Aven said. The driver who hit his truck was in the middle of the freeway, Aven said, with no injuries. Something that’s not all too unfamiliar to Aven. On Halloween in 2021, Aven said nearly the exact same accident happened, but this time it was worse. Aven had pulled over to help change a tire. Afterward, Aven was in his truck when he was rear-ended by a car. "It moved an 18,000-pound truck 60 feet,” Aven said.The driver and the passenger five years ago didn’t survive, and Aven had injuries. “It took a couple of months to get back on the road on my own," he said. These accidents are something Utah Highway Patrol Lt. Zach Randall said could be prevented. “If the lane next to you is occupied, or it’s unsafe to move over, at the very least slow down,” Randall said. Even if drivers are in the HOV lane, Randall said they should cross the double white line and move over. “We’d rather have you cross double white lines to give vehicles space,” he said. [gallery ids="914269,914268,914267,914266"] It’s a message UHP has been sharing with Utahns for years, and Randall believes they’ll keep sharing it as Utah continues to grow. “As our population increases, we have more drivers on the roadways,” Randall said. “It becomes more dangerous, so it’s imperative that drivers on the roadways be more attentive.” For the UDOT incident management team, they’re very aware of those dangers and hope drivers will help keep them safe while they’re doing their job. “Our job is to get you moving so that you guys are not the one that’s going to get hit along the shoulder,” Aven said. Aven was not injured in Monday’s accident and will be back on the roads on Tuesday. The driver involved in the crash was arrested on suspicion of driving on a revoked driver's license and failure to install an ignition interlock device.

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