Salt Lake police officer okay after Motel 6 employee takes quick action
Jan 9, 2021, 9:52 AM | Updated: Dec 29, 2022, 12:57 pm

A Salt Lake police officer only suffered minor injuries after being hit early Saturday morning. A Motel 6 employee across the street rushed out and pulled him from his cruiser. Photo credit: Mark Jackson
SALT LAKE CITY — A Salt Lake police officer escaped a crash involving a commercial-sized truck early Saturday morning with only minor injuries.
Salt Lake police spokesman Lt. Bill Manzanares said the driver of the truck may have run a red light at 600 South 200 West, before hitting the cruiser in the middle of the intersection shortly before 4 a.m.
Manzanares said the impact caused a fire and that the officer inside that vehicle was knocked unconscious. A short time later, a Motel 6 employee across the street rushed over to help the officer out of the cruiser. Manzanares said the officer was lucky and only suffered minor injuries.
“He was very fortunate that he had as minor injuries as he does, if you saw the car, it looks pretty mangled,” according to Lt. Manzanares.
Investigators said they do not suspect that alcohol or drugs were involved and that the driver of the truck cooperated with officers on the scene. Multiple eastbound lanes were shut down for a time on 600 South and traffic coming from I-15 was directed through the intersection by an officer. There were no other injuries.