BIG COTTONWOOD CANYON, Utah, June 22, 2016 (Gephardt Daily) — A husband and wife bicycling down Big Cottonwood Canyon were injured Wednesday morning when they collided with each other after encountering a deer on the roadway.
Officer Dallin Thomson from Unified Police Department said the incident happened at about 10 a.m., a half mile above Silver Fork Lodge.
“From what the witness said, he was about 300 to 400 yards away, coming down the Canyon, saw the bikers in front of him, and saw a deer run across the road,” Thomson said.
“We are unsure if that may have caused them to crash, but apparently it looks like they may have hit each other, went off the side of the road and crashed going downhill, so the speeds were probably pretty good.”
The husband and wife, both in their 60s, were transported in fair condition to a local hospital.
“Both were wearing helmets, which was a good thing because both of them had head injuries, so helmets were a huge factor in them not getting hurt more,” Thomson said.
“Just be careful, wear your helmets, that’s probably what saved them, seriously. The one helmet cracked open, so without that they would have been in a lot worse shape.”
A witness on the scene, Mikey Knudson, said his first thought was that the situation would not turn out well.
“I pulled up right behind them and like 80 cars drove right past them,” Knudson said. “I started trying to flag people over but I’m not an EMT so I don’t particularly know what to do.
“I saw the deer for a couple of minutes, because I could see him from further away, and then I saw the bikes, right as they went down, so I thought, ‘This isn’t going to be good.’ I thought they were going to get right back up, but neither of them were moving at that point. I’m going to go drop their bikes off then go back to work.”
