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SALT LAKE CITY — A Utah Highway Patrol trooper was almost killed after a near-miss with a semitruck, and his dashboard camera recorded the whole thing.
The video, released by UHP officials Monday, serves as a serious reminder to all drivers not to get distracted by anything behind the wheel.
In mid-December, Trooper Nolan Kerr was approaching an accident on I-15 near the Point of the Mountain and turned on his emergency lights to try and warn other drivers.
That's when he heard a foreboding sound he's become familiar with in his 4 1/2 years patrolling Utah's roadways: the sound of squealing brakes.
"There's not much scarier than the sound of semi(truck) brakes," Kerr said.
As the semitruck skidded toward the concrete barrier, its driver swerved to miss it. But the back end of the truck clipped the barrier it jacknifed right in front of Kerr's moving vehicle.
"When I reviewed that video and realized how close it was, that's kind of when the shock hit me; and that's when I realized I was about 30 feet from not making it home," Kerr said.
The driver of the semitruck later said he didn't see the slowing traffic in time because his eyes were on the emergency lights on Kerr's patrol car.
