JUAB COUNTY, Utah — A Utah Highway Patrol trooper is credited with saving lives by bravely crashing into a wrong-way driver going over 100 miles per hour.
It happened just before midnight on Friday near the Mona exit on I-15 in Juab County.
Dramatic dashcam video shows Trooper Geoffrey Hall using his patrol car to stop a wrong-way driver.
Just two years on the job, Hall heard a minivan was driving north on a southbound I-15 lane.
He found the minivan parked on the wrong side of I-15 near Mona. When he got close, the driver sped off.
Hall went back to the proper lane and sped up to the minivan, again.
“He was just behind me, almost parallel to me, and I look at my speedometer and I’m going 110. He’s staying up with me. At that point, with all the southbound traffic, I make the decision this needs to end as soon as possible because somebody is going to get killed,“ he said.
Hall crossed the center median and turned his car into the minivan said to be driven by Cory White.
“Basically just doing what I signed up for. If it means putting my life on the line, then that is part of the job and I knew that coming into it,” Hall said.
No one got seriously hurt, but both vehicles were severely damaged.
“The whole front of the car, where my feet are forward, is toast,” Hall said.
Arrest documents state that White told officers “he thought it was all a dream” and “he thought the trooper was just trying to race him.” Officers say White had meth in his system and an open alcohol container in the mini-van.
White faces nine charges, including felony DUI. He’s being held without bail.
