ST. GEORGE — A driver suffering from a medical episode drifted into oncoming traffic near the Exit 2 on-ramp of Interstate 15 before the vehicle became lodged in the rocks, where officers found it minutes later with an incoherent driver who was transported to the hospital.
At 12:15 p.m. officers, firefighters and paramedics responded to the single-vehicle incident involving a silver Chevrolet passenger car that was lodged upon a traffic island just east of the overpass.
Officers found the driver locked inside the vehicle. She appeared incoherent, and after attempts to communicate with her failed, officers broke the side window to gain entry, St. George Police officer Cody Adams said.
“She seemed pretty dazed and not really coherent, so we had to break the window to get in there and render her aid,” Adams said.
The driver was southbound on I-15 when she took Exit 2. As the car traveled east across the overpass toward Southern Parkway, she suffered “some type of medical issue” and the car began drifting into oncoming traffic lanes, Adams said.
The vehicle then jumped the curb, took out some brush and became lodged on the traffic island.
A motorist heading west on Southern Parkway “saw the whole thing, and then he called it in,” Adams said.
The driver was properly restrained and uninjured in the incident, and was transported to Dixie Regional Medical Center in stable condition.
No citations were issued.
“Thankfully, nobody struck the woman as her vehicle drifted across those lanes,” Adams said.
The St. George Police Department, Utah Highway Patrol, St. George Fire Department, UDOT’s Incident Management Team and Gold Cross Ambulance responded and tended to the scene.
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Look, I’m happy she is ok but why wasn’t she cited? She put a lot of people at serious risk. At the very least she should be re-evaluated for a drivers license.
You assume that she won’t be re-evaluated. She will. Maybe a diabetic coma or something equally disastrous. Citations are not necessarily given on the spot so don’t give up on the troopers.
“Dazed” drivers on the I 15 huh…just wait until the day comes when and if legal Marijuana is used while driving here in good ol’ southern Utah……No Bueno