TOOELE, Utah — A Tooele woman is asking for your help tracking down two Good Samaritans. She said the men ran to her aid and kept her calm after a seven-vehicle pile-up in Tooele Wednesday.
Patience Mattingly is five months away from welcoming her first girl into the world.
“We have so much stuff for her already,” said Mattingly. “We’re way too excited.”
A car crash Wednesday afternoon made the mom worry her daughter wouldn’t make it.
“My first thought was, ‘I’m going to die today.’ That was all I could think,” she said.
Utah Highway Patrol said the pile-up happened on I-80 near where the interstate merges with Highway 201. Roads were slick due to winter weather and a concrete mixer lost control, spreading across all lanes.
“They lost traction and spun out of control,” said Sterling Saiz, trooper with the Utah Highway Patrol. “Then a bunch of people swerved to avoid hitting them and they ended up hitting them, and then they got it. So it just turned into a giant mess yesterday.”
Mattingly said she was in a Jeep that was hit behind and then sent forward into the concrete mixer truck. That’s when two Good Samaritans pulled off to the side and rushed to her vehicle to help.
“The off-duty EMT climbs into my car, gets behind me, holds my neck from behind and holds me until I’m cleared by on-duty EMT's when they finally arrive,” she said.
Medics transported her to Mountain West Medical Center as a precaution. Mattingly and her baby are OK. She said she had a bloody nose and now only has major bruising.
Troopers say there were no one else was majorly injured.
Saiz said the pile-up included the concrete mixer, three to four personal vehicles, a dump truck and a semi.
“These are big vehicles involved, and somehow we seemed to have escaped a major tragedy that easily could have occurred here,” Saiz said.
Mattingly is asking for the community’s help tracking down the men that helped her so she can thank them.
“I put off getting my license for so long because I have a fear of motorized vehicles,” she said. “With this being my first accident, I’m scared to even try to drive again, but I know I have to eventually because I’m a mom. But thank you.”
