PRICE, Utah — A Utah woman is hospitalized with severe head trauma after a cement block fell off a truck, smashing through the windshield of the car in which she was a passenger.
According to the Utah Highway Patrol, the driver and passenger of a black Subaru were traveling eastbound on State Road 6 when the cement block fell off a truck traveling in the opposite direction, KSTU reported.
State troopers are now actively looking for the driver responsible for traveling with the unsecured load at around 2:20 p.m. Sunday, KUTV reported.
“That piece of block just bounced off the highway and went through the windshield,” Trooper Mikki Vargas told KSTU.
“Anyone who saw any kind of vehicle that may have been hauling bricks or cement or anything like that – even if they just remember briefly – any kind of information we will take and try and follow up with,” Vargas added.
Tips may be submitted on the Utah Highway Patrol’s website or by calling 801-965-4518.
According to KSTU, the woman is in stable condition and expected to make a full recovery.
Zach Whitney, a spokesperson with the Utah Department of Transportation, told the TV station that crews remove roughly 16 million pounds of debris off the state’s roads each year.
“A lot of times people have this misperception that if my load is ... secure, if I see that it’s not moving, then it’s not going to move,” he said. “We need to account for what’s going to happen when I get on the freeway going 55, 60 mph.”
Whitney also said all cargo should be covered if possible and that drivers should reconsider driving on the freeway if their loads hang over the sides of a truck bed or trailer.