5 Strangest Traffic Accidents in Utah

While it is common enough for someone traveling on a Utah road to muse that they “cannot be-LIEVE what they just saw,” there are stranger things than someone pulling out in front of you without putting their blinker on or bruising your hip while driving through a crosswalk on their cell phone.  In fact, the Salt Lake City area sees a number of mishaps which, deprived of their real-world effects, would seem worthy of British comedy:

1.   A malfunctioning construction crane drops a steel beam over I-15

Possibly because it was as tired in the August afternoon heat as any human, a construction crane dropped its cargo—a steel beam spanning the entire three lanes of the road—onto I-15 near Farmington in 2007.  Four cars ran aground as a result.  As miraculous as the beam’s falling was inexplicable, no one sustained any serious injuries (not even the construction worker who was down below when the crane fell).

2.   A T-bone becomes a stacked hors d’oeuvre in Sugar House

In spring of 2010, a small white Saturn approaching 1300 East and 2100 South at 75 miles per hour would, but for the grace of their high speed, have T-boned a black SUV that was turning across its path.  However, because they were forced to brake suddenly in an effort to avoid a collision, the quick drop in suspension caused the much smaller car to wedge beneath the SUV.  Again, the only injury was quite mild.

3.   A rampaging bull savages 4…vehicles

It was Halloween in Pleasant Grove when a bull broke through the fence of its enclosure and ran amok through traffic, causing two accidents when people slowed to appreciate the spectacle.  While no one was hurt, someone might have been.  The frenzied creature caused significant damage to three police cars and an animal control truck before it was finally shot.

4.   A plane crashes in a Roy neighborhood

It isn’t every day that a family birthday party is interrupted by a flaming airplane plummeting from the sky.  Yet, Gary Cox experienced that precise scenario when Gary Cox’s plane landed in front of the home where they were celebrating, set two houses aflame, and left 1,700 homes without power.  In spite of the fog that made Cox’s landing a fiasco, he managed to ground his plane without hurting anyone else (or, impressively, perishing himself).

5.   An automobile crash occurs in Salt Lake City

On February 12, 2009, a woman was thrown from her car and sustained serious injuries.  Such an incident is not, in itself, strange; but the woman involved in the accident was Lee Redmond of Guinness Book of World Records fame.  The woman can be expected to recover from her injuries; but it is not yet known whether the same can be said for her 3-foot-long nails.