WOODS CROSS, Utah — Cheyenne Lundell said her brother Robert was an athlete who loved spending time playing softball and golf with his family.
“He was fearless on anything,” said Cheyenne.
Robert was on the path to sobriety after struggling with alcoholism, she said.
“He wanted to get a sponsor,” said Cheyenne. “He had all these goals set out what he wanted to do.”
On Sunday, she got a call that Robert had been killed by a wrong-way driver.
“I just — I screamed, because that's our little brother,” she said. “It was hard. It was not something that you would ever expect would ever happen.”
With St. Patrick's Day being this past weekend, the Utah Highway Patrol planned a DUI blitz to try to stop reckless drivers. However, they couldn’t stop everyone, Lt. Cameron Roden said.
“We always try to make sure that we increase the messaging that we put out there, reminding drivers to have a sober ride home,” he said.
The crash is still under investigation, but UHP is looking into if the driver was under the influence.
“Out of the four fatal crashes that we've had so far this year, all four of them are linked to alcohol, are being investigated for alcohol involvement,” said Roden. “Last year, at the same time, we had six. All six of those were being investigated for alcohol involvement as well.”
Lundell doesn’t understand why this driver had to get behind the wheel that day.
“I know where he's at,” she said. “But don't give no right, no reason why he would go out and do that. You're taking a loved one away from you, and you can't take back.”
The Lundells are trying to raise money to cover funeral costs to have Robert buried in Arizona in a plot beside his twin sister. You can donate to the family by sending money to @Tyler-Lundell on Venmo.
