Neighbors rush to help elderly male in rollover crash near Green Springs Golf Course

Residents in Las Entradas Villages at Green Springs surround their neighbor's rolled SUV, Washington City, Utah, May 17, 2022 | Photo by Ammon Teare, St. George News

WASHINGTON CITY — The peace and quiet of a sleepy neighborhood near Green Springs Golf Course was briefly interrupted Tuesday afternoon by the sounds of a rollover crash at someone’s doorstep.

A view of the crashed Nissan Kicks that collided with a concrete mailbox near Green Springs Golf Course, Washington City, Utah, May 17, 2022 | Photo by Ammon Teare, St. George News

“It’s usually a really nice quiet neighborhood – nobody drives fast and nobody has accidents,” said Ralph Griffin, a longtime resident of Las Entradas Villages. “It wasn’t quiet today.”

Griffin said he was in his home office just a few hundred feet away from the scene when he heard the collision around 4:50 p.m. Rushing outside, he recognized his up-the-street neighbor struggling to escape the wreckage of a blue Nissan Kicks that had demolished a concrete mailbox in front of 914 Vista Bonita Road.

The crossover SUV was stuck on its passenger side with bricks and other debris from the car and mailbox scattered around the site of the impact. Griffin joined other neighbors in trying to pry open the driver’s side door to create an exit for the man inside.

“I couldn’t reach up there and open it, so I ran back and got a step stool,” he said. “I came over and another fellow came and we both opened the door for him. He crawled out the driver’s side door – bleeding and all – and we pulled him out, laid him down on the grass and he seemed to be doing okay, just bleeding pretty good.”

Officers with the Washington City Police Department joined paramedics with Gold Cross Ambulance and firefighters from the Washington City Police Department in responding to the 911 call.

A view of the crashed Nissan Kicks that collided with a concrete mailbox near Green Springs Golf Course, Washington City, Utah, May 17, 2022 | Photo by Ammon Teare, St. George News

Police Chief Jason Williams said the elderly male driver was assessed at the scene with multiple lacerations to his face and arms but no life-threatening injuries. The driver was transported to the hospital by ambulance for further treatment.

“He was coherent and talking to us on the scene,” Williams said. “He said he was traveling through this neighborhood and there was another vehicle that appeared to be trying to back out of a driveway.

“The male said he went to move around that vehicle, and it appears that he possibly mistook the gas for the brakes and then collided with the concrete mailbox, which twisted him around a little bit.”

That version of events didn’t quite match what Griffin said he witnessed in the crash’s aftermath. 

“He just ran straight into that mailbox,” Griffin said. “There were no other vehicles around. He must have blacked out or lost control of it somehow before he hit the mailbox.”

Either way, police and residents agreed that the accident was a “freak thing” for this particular neighborhood. The incident is still under investigation, and no citation had been issued at the time of reporting.

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