UTAH TROOPER'S QUICK THINKING SAVES TWO LIVES
A state trooper changing a tire for a woman stranded on Interstate 15 put her in a bear hug and dived over a concrete barrier Thursday, moments before a sport utility vehicle smashed into his patrol truck. Official reported that had the trooper not acted as he did, both he and the woman would most certainly have been crushed to death.
Trooper Bryce Ivie of the Utah Highway Patrol arrested the 28-year-old Provo man and turned him over to Orem police. The driver was in custody on suspicion of drunken driving. After it was hit by the SUV, Ivie's truck crashed into the woman's car and all three vehicles moved 50 feet along the barricade.
The trooper stated that with all three vehicles coming straight for us, I grabbed the lady and threw both of us over the cement barricade. Jihae Song, 25, suffered minor injuries, mostly scrapes from going over the barricade, he said.
Ivie, 29, had heard reports of a reckless driver just before the crash. While changing the tire, he looked up and tried to get the license plate of another suspicious SUV moving north on the freeway.
After the dive over the barricade with Song, Ivie, who is 29 and has been a trooper for seven years, returned to the SUV. The driver had his foot on the accelerator as the trooper banged on the window and told him to put the vehicle in park. Ivie opened the truck door and did it himself, taking the keys.
While troopers aren't necessarily trained for these specific circumstances, they are trained to be aware of their surroundings and imagine how they would react in a variety of scenarios, Ivie said.