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NORTH SALT LAKE — Katie Workman said she wants to make it clear that the collision that killed her brother was not due to him being a young, reckless motorcyclist. She said he was "incredibly safety conscious" and was wearing thousands of dollars of safety equipment at the time and was skilled at biking.
But he didn't stand a chance when a motorist driving the wrong way on the I-15 freeway suddenly appeared, hitting and killing him on Feb. 20.
Troopers say such wrong-way crashes are becoming more common in Utah. Friends and family of Greg Workman on Saturday called for more prevention measures during a vigil for him at Hatch Park, not far from the freeway where he died.
"I can't do anything, and none of us can, to bring my brother back. But we can maybe do something to make a difference about this in the future because there's a lot of basic policy that Utah hasn't implemented," Katie Workman said.
Stephan Burgin was riding with Greg Workman and was right behind him when he was hit. They were laughing over Bluetooth headsets, with Burgin talking about how cold it was and how Workman was all geared up while Burgin was only wearing a sweatshirt and tennis shoes. Burgin said he put his head down for just a second, laughing at something Workman said.
"And it was when I looked up, I saw the headlights," Burgin recalled. "And I just, my instant reaction was to twitch and swerve over and I ended up just barely getting into that No. 1 lane. And as soon as I straightened out, I looked in my mirror and I just saw a huge cloud. And then I saw his body flying in the air."
The driver hit Workman's motorcycle and two other cars, troopers said, after getting onto I-15 going the wrong way.
"I'm never going to know if what happened to Greg was preventable, but we can ... make sure this is preventable to someone else, so they don't have to go through this," Katie Workman, who is a reporter/web producer at KSL.com, said.
Among the safety measures she would like to see implemented are lowering certain signage, because drunk drivers are more likely to be looking down, and putting flashing lights on wrong-way signs. She also said that there are options for sensors on off-ramps that will alert law enforcement if someone drives the wrong way and signs that light up to alert people on the road when there is a wrong-way driver on the road.
She encouraged everyone at the vigil to reach out to legislators and let them know that this is an issue that is important to them. She said that there should be a "Greg Workman bill."
Utah Highway Patrol Cpl. Andrew Battenfield said wrong-way crashes have been increasing, but he doesn't know why.
In 2022 so far there have been 28 fatal crashes, three of those, including the one that killed Workman, were wrong-way fatal crashes, Battenfield said. Two of the three were on a freeway and were handled by UHP. In 2021 there were 297 fatal crashes in Utah, 15 of which had someone traveling the wrong way, and in 2020 there were 340 fatal crashes, 17 of which were wrong way.
He said especially on a freeway, a wrong-way crash can be very tragic, because it leads to a head-on crash with the force from the speed of both vehicles.
"You don't always see long distances on I-15. ... You can be really surprised by what is right on top of you with a wrong-way driver,"
Battenfield said that if you see a car going the wrong way toward you, you should slow down and get to the opposite side of the road. He urged drivers to be aware of the road, and to call 911 if they see anyone moving the wrong way on either side of the road, and be as detailed as possible about the location so troopers can respond as quickly as possible.
"Those precious seconds can make the difference between you being able to react quickly to a wrong-way car," he said.
Battenfield said that they are still looking into whether the driver who was going the wrong way in this collision was impaired. The driver was taken to the hospital after the crash and has not yet been charged with any crimes as the case is still being investigated.
He said that UHP will not chase a car going the wrong way, but there are procedures troopers can use to attempt to slow down such vehicles, forcing them off the road or getting the car to crash to a stop when the roads are empty. He said the maneuver is dangerous, but it can save lives. Such a maneuver was just recently used in a separate wrong-way driver incident.
Daniel and Tasha Clark, both riders in Workman's motorcycle group, also called for more prevention measures to stop wrong-way driving. Daniel Clark said he wants to see law enforcement do more to prevent speeding, distracted driving and drunk driving. He said motorcyclists understand that riding a motorcycle is more dangerous, and that a crash with a car is going to be detrimental, which is why they drive cautiously.
Along with wrong-way driving, speeding and distracted driving can be very dangerous as well, especially when driving around motorcycles.
"Drivers need to pay more attention to us on bikes," Tasha Clark said.
Katie Workman said that in a conversation with her brother a few months ago, he told her that if anything happened to him, he would be OK. She said that she knows he is OK now.
"It's important to me that you all know that he was soft and sweet, even when he was a rascal. And Greg had a lot more to give all of us, and it sucks that we're not going to have that, but I know that we're all going to be OK," she said.
Dallas Ray Workman talked about how his son was safety conscious and told stories where he went above and beyond what others would do to make sure that they were safe on the roads with a trailer or while driving in snow. He said his son knew a lot about safety and about motorcycles.
"I do believe Greg is happy, and I do believe Greg is being taken care of wherever he is," he said.
Tasha Clark said that the motorcycling community is tight knit, and they consider others in the group to be family, which makes the loss of Workman hard on the group.
"Greg will always be remembered," she said. "He's always going to be with us. He's riding up there with everybody."
