ST. GEORGE — Two Toquerville women were transported to the hospital after a single-vehicle rollover was triggered by a series of overcorrections on state Route 9 in Hurricane Thursday afternoon.
At 2:30 p.m. officers and emergency personnel were dispatched to SR-9 just past 2600 West in Hurricane for a rollover involving a 2007 Honda Accord with two occupants, Utah Highway Patrol Sgt. Jake Hicks said.
Responders found the vehicle off to the right of the roadway where it came to rest upside-down and was extensively damaged. The driver was outside of the car while the passenger was not trapped but needed assistance getting out of the car.
Once the passenger was freed from the wreckage both women were checked by EMTs and taken to Dixie Regional Medical Center by ambulance with injuries that were not life-threatening, Hicks said.
At the time of the crash the Honda was heading west on SR-9 where it began to drift to the right, and the driver overcorrected to the left and then pulled the steering wheel sharply back to the right, which sent the car sliding sideways across both westbound lanes of travel.
The vehicle slid off the shoulder to the right and was sent into a counter-clockwise spin as it continued up a steep embankment until it lost momentum and then rolled back down and landed on its roof, deploying the side airbags in the process.
Both occupants were unrestrained at the time of the crash.
Hicks said the rollover shattered the car’s windows and scattered debris across the soft shoulder, adding there is a high probability that both occupants “would have been ejected from the car had this been a rollover at highway speeds.”
Instead, “this was a crash where the car basically tumbled back down the embankment so both women were able to remain inside of the car.”
Hicks continued by saying that some motorists believe they are safe not wearing their seat belt due to all of the safety features built into modern vehicles.
“But that’s just not so,” he said.
During a frontal collision the car’s front airbags blast open within milliseconds, which saves thousands of lives but can be potentially deadly for occupants not properly restrained.
“Seat belt use is arguably the single most important piece of safety equipment in a vehicle,” Hicks said, “but they work in unison with the other safety features built into the car.”
Traffic was impacted for under an hour while responders tended to the scene and the vehicle was towed away.
This report is based on statements from police or other responders and may not contain the full scope of findings.
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