WASHINGTON CITY — A driver was transported to the hospital Friday after her vehicle rolled across Interstate 15 southbound near the Exit 16 on-ramp after experiencing a sudden medical issue.
About 9:45 a.m. officers and emergency responders found a white 1991 Buick Park Avenue in the median with the front facing “true north,” Utah Highway Patrol Sgt. Jake Hicks said.
The driver was treated at the scene and then transported to Dixie Regional Medical Center for evaluation and treatment, Hicks said, “for minor injuries, if any, but mainly as a precaution.”
Just before the crash, the woman was heading west on state Route 9 and just as the vehicle approached the on-ramp she experienced a sudden nosebleed. As she attended to that, the vehicle drifted to the right just as it entered a sharp curve in the roadway.
The driver then overcorrected to the left which sent the Buick skidding across the roadway where it slammed into a ditch near where the on-ramp meets the interstate and launched the car into a violent rollover.
“Once the car started to roll, the roof never hit the ground,” Hicks said. “So basically the Buick did 360 degree barrel roll across the interstate and then landed right-side up off the shoulder in the median.”
The driver was properly restrained at the time of the incident, which Hicks said left her “pretty shaken up but good – she was safe.”
Hicks went on to say that as the vehicle flipped, “everything inside of that car wants to come out, and the driver would have been thrown out of the window had she not had that seat belt on.
“That would have been a disaster.”
The vehicle sustained extensive damage and was towed from the roadway. The driver was not cited, as Hicks said no other vehicles or property were damaged during the crash.
“This was just a life lesson for her in this case.”
This report is based on statements from police or other responders and may not contain the full scope of findings.
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Utah Highway Patrol troopers tend to the scene of a single-vehicle rollover on I-15 near the Exit 16 on-ramp, Washington City, Utah, Feb. 1, 2019 | Photo by Cody Blowers, St. George News A Buick Town Car is towed after a single-vehicle rollover on I-15 near the Exit 16 on-ramp, Washington City, Utah, Feb. 1, 2019 | Photo by Cody Blowers, St. George News The scene of a single-vehicle rollover on I-15 near the Exit 16 on-ramp, Washington City, Utah, Feb. 1, 2019 | Photo by Cody Blowers, St. George News The scene of a single-vehicle rollover on I-15 near the Exit 16 on-ramp, Washington City, Utah, Feb. 1, 2019 | Photo by Cody Blowers, St. George News A driver is transported to the hospital after a single-vehicle rollover on I-15 near the Exit 16 on-ramp, Washington City, Utah, Feb. 1, 2019 | Photo by Cody Blowers, St. George News
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