SALT LAKE CITY — South Jordan resident Nancy Brisbay was on her morning walk on Aug. 12 when she heard yelling behind her and saw a man coming toward her on an e-bike.
“He was so close. I know he was trying to avoid running over me, but inevitably, it just happened, and I fell down in the ravine, and he ran over me,” Brisbay said. "The next thing I know is he's going back the other direction, and I have a mouth full of dirt.”
She said she has been walking on the Jordan River Parkway Trail for 10 years and has never experienced something like this.
“I knew that there was something definitely wrong with my legs,” she said.
Brisbay has been staying with relatives and has not been home since the accident due to her injuries.
“The tibia and the fibula are both broken in two spots, and so the bones in the center were just kind of floating around,” she said.
Soren Simonsen, the executive director of the Jordan River Commission, said these accidents have been on the rise since the pandemic.
“There's just a lot of congestion on the trail as it's become more popular over the last several years, and with this proliferation of more mobile devices, it's just creating lots of issues,” he said.
On the Jordan River Parkway Trail, e-bikes are allowed but must be ridden using the pedals instead of the throttle since motorized vehicles are not allowed.
“That's one of the challenges is that we have 100 jurisdictions across the Wasatch Front. They all establish their own regulations,” Simonsen said.
He added that speed is the biggest contributor to these accidents.
“Speed limits are not well established,” Simonsen said. "It can be pretty narrow in some areas, and there's blind corners, and when you meet somebody going the other direction, or even the same direction, but they may be moving slowly. That creates unsafe conditions.”
He said they are working to get more established speed limits and are encouraging residents to read signs and pay attention to their surroundings.
“We're also working closely with public safety and first responders to make it easier to identify,” Simonsen said. "So, if there is an incident, we want people to be able to get help. And sometimes you don't know exactly where you are, and so there's been some effort in recent years, and we're trying to expand this so that you can more easily identify your location."
South Jordan Police last told FOX 13 News that they were still looking for the person who hit Brisbay. She said she's thankful that bystanders were able to help her on the trail that day.
“I was angry the first few days, because I kept seeing his face constantly over and over again,” Brisbay said, "but you know what? There were way too many good people there. And that's just kind of how I looked at it.”
FOX 13 News reached back out to the South Jordan Police Department to see if there were any more updates in the investigation but did not receive a response.
You can read more about rules along the Jordan River Parkway on the Salt Lake City website HERE.
DRIVEN TO CHANGE
