LEHI — An apparent road rage incident on I-15 near Lehi Monday resulted in two people being shot in one vehicle and another vehicle crashing into a cement barricade.
About 7:30 a.m., a white pickup truck and a black pickup truck were involved in a road rage incident while southbound on I-15, said Utah Highway Patrol Lt. Nick Street. How the incident started was still being investigated Monday.
By the time it was over, the black pickup had been forced by the other truck into a cement barricade on the off-ramp to Lehi’s Main Street, Street said. The damage to the black pickup was significant enough that the truck was not able to drive, he said.
In the white truck, two of the five occupants were shot by the driver of the black pickup, according to Street. The driver of the white pickup was hospitalized with critical injuries but was expected to survive, he said. Another passenger suffered minor injuries.
What was not immediately known Monday was whether shots were fired before or after the white pickup truck caused the black truck to crash, or whether that was the only time the two vehicles came in contact with each other, Street said.
It was also not known if anyone from the white pickup fired shots, but Street said Monday there was no immediate indication of that. He said all of the people involved have been cooperating with investigators.
The southbound lanes of the freeway were closed for a couple of hours as troopers investigated the incident, causing 60- to 90-minute traffic delays.
UHP troopers have reported a sharp increase in the number of road rage incidents in 2020 from the year before, Street said. Charges were screened in 31 cases of people brandishing a gun, threatening to use a weapon or assaulting someone on the freeway last year, compared to fewer than 20 incidents in 2019, he said.
Anecdotally, Street said troopers have been investigating incidents across the state of adults who have no prior criminal history, yet they have exhibited “abhorrent behavior” by getting into disagreements with other drivers that escalate into a violent road rage scenarios.
He said troopers are frustrated that some people can’t seem to let go of what is typically a minor incident on the road, and let it escalate into something much worse.
“It’s mind-blowing that individuals have that much lack of common sense,” Street said.
He said the UHP encourages people to not become so enraged at other drivers that it clouds their thinking, and to make an effort to let such things go.
Correction: An earlier version incorrectly stated occupants of the black truck were shot. Only occupants in the white truck suffered gunshot wounds.