While responding to a victim of an interstate rollover, a medical helicopter clipped a street sign with its rotor while landing.
A University of Utah AirMed helicopter was on its way to pick up a single-car rollover victim at about 12:30 p.m. Monday when its rotor hit a road sign and landed hard. The pilot immediately killed the engine. Paramedics decided to transport the crash victim by ambulance.
The victim of the crash apparently fell asleep, over corrected and rolled three times off the interstate and into a tree, according to Utah Highway Patrol Lt. John Mitchell. The driver was heading westbound on I-84 and crashed not far from the town of Riverdale.
The driver was trapped inside his truck and was injured bad enough that firefighters asked a medical helicopter to respond.
But while the helicopter was landing witnesses say it hit the road sign, rose up about 10 feet and almost tipped over on its side.
"The tail rotor did come off the gear, so it’s disabled, they won’t be able to fly it out of here. They’re going to have to put it on some type of flatbed semi to get it off the interstate," said Mitchell.
Troopers say the truck driver is in stable condition. The pilot, nurse and paramedic who were inside the helicopter were all unharmed.
