A Unified Fire Authority ambulance crew faced the grim scene of an accident that killed one of their own in Parleys Canyon on Saturday, police said.
Bruce McGowan, 45, of Midway, was on his way home from work about 8:30 p.m., said Battalion Chief Clint Smith.
As McGowan drove east on Interstate 80, a westbound Jeep Cherokee going at least 80 mph veered across the steep, narrow median, said Utah Highway Patrol Lt. Garrard Moren. The Jeep went airborne and into the path of McGowan’s Volkswagen Jetta.
McGowen “probably saw a blur of headlights, and that’s it,” Moren said. The Jeep hit his car on the driver’s side.
The impact rolled the Jeep back to the median, where it landed on its wheels.
Paramedics from Park City arrived first at the scene. They quickly determined that McGowan was dead, and that he was a UFA firefighter. A UFA crew arrived shortly after. All five crew members knew McGowan personally and counted him as a friend, Smith said. He was pinned in his car, and the Park City rescuers asked if the UFA paramedics wanted to free him.
“Our crews wanted to be the ones to be able to do that for Bruce,” Smith said. “Our crews were the ones who actually extricated him from the vehicle. We took him to the medical examiner’s officer in our ambulance.”
McGowan had been a UFA firefighter and paramedic for just over 6½ years and was based at the Magna station, Smith said.
He was “very well-liked and respected, just one of those guys you really enjoy being around, just completely likable,” Smith said.
McGowan went to law school, but soon found that office life didn’t suit him, Smith said. Instead, he worked on a fishing boat in Alaska, went hiking in Nepal and started a career as a firefighter.
“He really found what he enjoyed doing and felt like he made a difference in life,” Smith said. McGowan leaves behind his wife, Heidi, and two children, ages 3 and 5.
The Jeep’s driver, a Murray man in his early 20s, was treated at the scene and released. Moren declined to release his name or exact age. Utah Highway Patrol troopers are investigating why he crossed the median. Investigators believe it was driver error, not a mechanical problem. He had some alcohol in his system, but less than the legal limit of .08. The posted speed limit is 65 mph. No citations have yet been issued and a full investigation will likely take two to three weeks, Moren said.
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