PARLEY'S CANYON, Utah — A crash in Parley’s Canyon Monday morning sent one person to the hospital and created hours of backup in the eastbound lanes of I-80.
Just after 5 a.m., rideshare driver, Bob Tackleberry, was heading up to Summit County to pick up a customer. That’s when he saw a car smashed into the back of a semi-truck and he stopped to help.
“Looking at the inside of the van, it looked like an explosion went off, that kind of thing, airbags all over the place and it was just a mess,” Tackleberry said.
The driver was conscious but wasn’t speaking and Tackleberry knew he needed to call for help immediately. “His breathing was laboring and you could tell he was in a lot of pain.”
Tackleberry called 911, which he says put him on hold. He then called several other agencies like Utah Highway Patrol and the Summit County non- emergency line.
“I just let them know, ‘hey help is on the way,’ that’s about all you wanna do,” Tackleberry said. “Kind of give them that reassurance that they’re going to get help.”
While waiting for help, Tackleberry directed traffic.
“I was getting people away from the right lane all the way into the fast lanes,” Tackleberry said.
Once emergency crews arrived, they were able to get the victim out and he was flown to the hospital with critical injuries.
“There’s that side of us, you know, 'let’s help a person out, let’s have compassion,' because I know I would want somebody to do the same thing for me and everything,” Tackleberry said.
As a Lyft and Uber driver, Tackleberry sees accidents on the roadway often and always tries to stop and help if it’s safe to do so.
“I did what a reasonable human being would do and that’s it," Tackleberry said. "Nothing more, nothing less." said Tackleberry.
The cause of the crash is under investigation.
