OREM, Utah, Dec. 17, 2023 (Gephardt Daily) — A head-on collision between a Utah Highway Patrol trooper and a wrong-way driver in Utah County left the driver dead at the scene.
The trooper and a passenger from the wrong-way car were transported to an area hospital for treatment. The fatal incident is being investigated as an Officer-Involved Critical Incident (OICI), UHP Sgt. Andrew Battenfield told reporters at a Sunday morning news conference.
In keeping with OICI protocol, an outside agency will investigate the incident. In this case, the outside agency will be the Orem Police Department.
Troopers were alerted just before 2 a.m. to the wrong-way driver, who was headed north on southbound Interstate 15.
“Within just a few minutes, troopers made contact with that individual, at about mile 271, with a head-on collision,” Battenfield said.
The collision proved fatal for the wrong-way driver who died at the scene. A UHP tweet issued after the news conference confirmed the driver’s passenger suffered critical injuries.
“The passenger from the wrong-way car was transported to the hospital, and our trooper as well, was transported to the hospital. Our trooper is in good shape, he’s in good spirits. He will need some surgery, but we expect him to recover.”
More information about the injured trooper will be provided at a later date.
Battenfield told reporters there had been five incidents of wrong-way drivers within the past two weeks. He said in most cases, impairment was a contributing factor, but he could not say if that was the case in the Sunday morning OICI, and Orem police investigators would be examining the evidence.
When asked about bravery required for UHP troopers to put themselves in harm’s way, Battenfield said dealing with wrong-way drivers is “something that, as law enforcement, we think about a lot especially with the Highway Patrol that things happen very quickly on the road. We have some training for this, but it’s something that all too frequently we are dealing with now.”
Gephardt Daily will have additional information as details and findings in the case are released.
