First responders share personal crash stories to encourage drivers to move over

TAYLORSVILLE — The Utah Highway Patrol put out a message for drivers Tuesday that it hopes will save lives.

As drivers head into the holidays, the Utah Highway Patrol encourages all drivers to move over for first responders on the road. It doesn’t want anyone to get hit, like they have in the past, and its officers are sharing their personal stories.

The roads can be a dangerous place for Utah’s first responders.

“Nearly every crash responder I know can tell the story of a near miss,” said Utah Highway Patrol Col. Greg Holley.

This week is Crash Responder Safety Week. It’s why Utah troopers and others are sharing their frightening stories from the road, so no one else experiences what they did.

Lt. Cade Brenchley with the Utah Highway Patrol said he could’ve easily died.

“I definitely had someone watching over me, and was very blessed,” Brenchley said.

His dash camera video of the crash is graphic. In March 2018, Brenchley had gotten out of his car to help a driver in a crash up Sardine Canyon, when another car hit him from behind and sent him flying in the air.

“I do remember getting hit, I didn’t know what it was at the time, I remember a jolt and everything going black,” Brenchley said.

He was rushed to the hospital with broken ribs and a broken shoulder, but no life-threatening injuries. His family is grateful he survived.

“It was extremely scary to go through, and I’m just happy that everything turned out the way it did,” Brenchley’s wife, Lindsay, said.

Countless other responders have their own crash stories.

During a DUI stop, the truck of Sgt. Lance Bess with the Cottonwood Heights Police Department was rear-ended by a drunk driver.

“I look up, I look toward my truck just in time to see a car is coming full force, full speed and smacks into the rear of my vehicle,” Bess said.

Five years ago, UDOT Incident Management Lead Alan Peterson got rear-ended on Thanksgiving weekend while inside his vehicle.

“He lost control, hit the side of my truck and rear-ended me and my truck also,” Peterson said.

That’s why they want drivers to slow down and move over if they can when they see first responders on the road. That allows first responders to avoid a crash and avoid being added to the list of Utah’s fallen.

“I think about that all the time, I think about how lucky I am that my picture is not up on that wall,” Brenchley said.

When drivers hear these messages, responders want them to remember — these are people doing their jobs on the side of the road.

It could even be someone just changing a tire, all trying to get home safely.

Read more: West Jordan crash on Monday sees vehicle roll, minor injuries