Utah
Utah dad who died rescuing children in crash remembered as 'selfless'
COTTONWOOD HEIGHTS — Family members of a Utah County father are sharing the heartbreaking story of how he died trying to help his children after a crash in southern Utah following a horrific chain of events.
They’re also expressing how grateful they are that the community is now rallying around that man’s wife and five children.
A photo showing Reino Kerttula and his family in matching Christmas pajamas shows that he was all about family. Reino Kerttula was known to be the first to jump in and help, and not just with his wife Sarah Kerttula and five kids, but with Sarah Kerttula’s whole family, too.
Sarah Kerttula’s brother, Seth Crossley, described Reino Kerttula as “a big brother to all of us.”
“He was the person that would, no questions asked, help you with anything that you needed,” Crossley said.
Crossley and Jeff Aiken, Reino Kerttula’s brother-in-law by marriage to Sarah Kerttula’s sister, explained how everyone got together for Easter and had dinner as an extended family.
Then Reino, Sarah, and three of their children took off for southern Utah for spring break because their older daughter was getting married.
“They were really excited,” Aiken said, of the wedding.
But on Interstate 15, nearly the home stretch to St. George around Leeds, Aiken said a deer jumped out in front of the family’s SUV. Reino Kerttula tried to swerve to miss it, Aiken said, but the SUV fishtailed.
“They hit the deer, and then their vehicle rolled several times, crossed over the median and ended up on its side,” he said.
The family was stuck inside, sideways, and sitting in oncoming traffic.
Reino Kerttula was able to get out, and as he tried to rescue his kids, another vehicle hit him. Aiken said he was thrown into the air.
“When he came down, he was yelling for everybody to get out of the road, and get to safety,” Aiken said.
In those moments, he explained how it was clear Reino Kerttula was only thinking of his wife and kids, despite being critically injured. He said Reino Kerttula was lying on the road, holding his son’s hand and trying to comfort his son.
“He smiled, adamant that everything’s going to be okay and, that was the last thing that I think anyone had heard from him,” Aiken said, getting choked up. “He lost consciousness right after, and never regained it.”
Everyone ended up in the hospital with injuries. Aiken said the couple’s youngest had to have surgery to reattach and realign his fingers on his hand, and everyone else had stitches or broken bones.
They were released on Tuesday.
Reino Kerttula’s injuries were just too severe. Aiken said he died while in surgery Tuesday night.
“They’re all in shock,” Crossley said, of the family. “I don’t know how anybody gets through.”
The brothers-in-law said the community is helping, from cleaning to yard work.
“It’s amazing to see the outpouring of love and generosity,” Aiken said.
He set up a GoFundMe* to help Sarah with medical bills, funeral costs, replacing the family’s vehicle, and as Sarah Kerttula starts navigating life with the kids.
Instead of looking forward to a wedding, they’re now planning a funeral as the family remembers the man who always thought of everyone else first.
“Just incredibly selfless, cared deeply for others,” Aiken said. “He was just a great guy.”
*KSL TV does not assure that the money deposited to the account will be applied for the benefit of the persons named as beneficiaries. If you are considering a deposit to the account, you should consult your own advisors and otherwise proceed at your own risk.
Utah
Amid traffic, Utah walked to Leafs’ arena pregame
TORONTO — The Utah Hockey Club said players were forced to walk to their game against the Maple Leafs after their bus got stuck in Toronto traffic Sunday night.
The team posted a video on social media of team members walking to Scotiabank Arena, with player Maveric Lamoureux saying the bus was “not moving at all.”
Several city streets had been closed during the day for an annual Santa Claus parade.
The Maple Leafs earned their fourth consecutive win by defeating Utah 3-2.
The viral incident prompted Ontario Premier Doug Ford to call the congestion “embarrassing” and “unacceptable,” highlighting his government’s plan to address the city’s gridlock through bike lane legislation.
It wasn’t the first time a Toronto visitor had to ditch their vehicle to make it to an event on time.
In June, former One Direction band member Niall Horan had to walk through traffic to get to his concert at Scotiabank Arena.
Utah
Utah Highway Patrol responds to your suggestions on making Utah roads safer
SALT LAKE CITY — FOX 13 News is Driven to Change and that includes bringing you reports on important topics like road rage, construction, and wrong-way drivers. During our coverage, we continually ask for any questions or concerns you may have along Utah’s roadways.
The feedback has gotten an enormous response, so FOX 13 sat down with Lieutenant Cameron Roden on Good Day Utah to help address input we have been getting, from the perspective of Utah Highway Patrol.
Speeding in Utah, there’s so much of it, and then you can sometimes say that that leads to tailgating, which may lead to road rage incidents. What are you seeing out there in terms of speed and what can we do to lessen the effects of that?
Lt. Cameron Roden: Speed is our number one thing that we see. That’s our number one traffic stop that we make, and we know that it leads to the majority of crashes in the state of Utah. So we definitely put an emphasis on speed and it does lead to other things. Not just crashes. It leads to road rage and other things .So, as far as what changes can we make, we need to start with ourselves, and really say, ‘Hey, do I have a problem?’ You know, we just need to start with ourselves and not think that it’s something else’s problem. If we slow our speeds ourselves, and then it’ll start to to catch on and people will do that speed limit. So, but the legislature has definitely taken some steps to help us address, especially the the speeds that are those excessive speeds where we have that one zero five law now that addresses those speeds and increases fines and and hopefully discourages people from those extreme speeds.
Some of our viewers talked about maybe capping some of the speed limits for truck drivers. Is that something that’s even feasible?
You know, that would be something that would have to go through that, that legislative process to see whether we that would be something that would help. But ultimately, if we we start with ourselves, hopefully that will make that change and reduce crashes and fatalities.
There are things being done to try and intervene and stop wrong-way drivers before they happen. But some of our viewers propose things like spikes. What are your thoughts on implementing something like that?
We’ve had over the last several years, a rash of wrong-way drivers, and it’ll come in onesie twos, and then we’ll go for a period of time without that. And so, but this spike over the last couple of years has caused us to to create a task force to look at wrongly driving what things can be done. And so getting all these stakeholders together between UDOT and Highway Safety, looking at what technologies and things that could be implemented, and and things like, wrong way detection cameras. Those are some things that are being actually used in the state of Utah right now to help us spot those and and advance signage, getting people to realize they’re going the wrong way and turn around. The the spike strips have actually been talked about in our task force a little bit. And if something like that would even be, it is that technology available right now. And as what we could actually implement in the state of Utah, there’s nothing that really fits the bill right now because of our environment. We have our snow plows. We have snow and things like that. Something like that really wouldn’t be practical right now.
Probably the most talked about topic that we’ve received was distracted driving, texting while driving. You went out, I saw on the UHP social media page, that you guys just driving and you look to your right and left and you can find someone texting. What kind of enforcement do we have against distracted driving specifically on your phone?
This is something that we like you said, we see it every day. We go out to crashes,and and we may suspect that a driver may be distracted. And so, it’s something that’s definitely under-reported. It’s it’s a bigger problem than than the numbers really show.And so not only do we address it during our normal patrols.Our officers are seeing it, and addressing it while they’re out there.But we’ll also do targeted patrols where the highway safety office actually gives out additional funds for that targeted enforcement, where we’ll get an unmarked vehicle. We go out driving down the roads where we try to spot these vehicles and and get them stopped because those are those are a big danger on our roadways where our attention and our focus needs to be on driving.
If you have ideas or suggestions for how to make Utah’s roadways safer click here to be taken to our Driven to Change form. There you can share your ideas or suggestions.
DRIVEN TO CHANGE
Share your ideas on how to make Utah’s roads safer
Utah
Utah National Guard gets new, top-of-the-line Apache helicopters
WEST JORDAN, Utah — The Utah National Guard has been serving the state since 1894 with roots dating back to the Minutemen of the 17th-century American colonies.
This weekend, they received quite the boost in the form of the Army’s most advanced attack helicopter.
“These aircraft are extremely fast compared to our other aircraft,” said Col. Patrick.
On Saturday, the Utah National Guard took their new Apache helicopters for a spin.
“The flight went better than we could have hoped for. A little weather on the east coast, but after that, it wasn’t bad at all,” Patrick said.
The first four of 24 Apaches arrived early Saturday morning after they went under full inspection.
“They’ve got software on there that it’s like playing a video game. You just fly the video game and the airplane… is fast and smooth, which is the good thing, and so it’ll just hold the altitude and airspeed and just keep on trucking along. It’s pretty good,” Patrick said.
The first Apache helicopters arrived in Utah back in 1992.
“It just continues the legacy of the air pirates and what we bring to not only Utah, but really to the global fight and security, really,” Patrick added.
The colonel calls it a major step forward.
“What a great day for Utah as we advance into the next couple decades of combat operations and what we can provide to, you know, the global security.”
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