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Murray » The driver may not know it, but he or she killed a woman and gave her family a new mission in life.
Last December Meredith Deckard swerved on Interstate 15 in Ogden to miss a box that flew off the back of a pickup. Her Geo Prizm bounced off of a median rail and sideways into traffic, where a tractor-trailer struck it.
A life-flight crew flew her to McKay-Dee Hospital with a severe traumatic brain injury, and she died weeks later when doctors removed life support.
On Tuesday her smiling photograph and weeping 26-year-old son standing next to the smashed sedan became the faces of the Utah Department of Transportation's campaign to keep debris off of Utah's highways.
"It's all because somebody didn't take the extra five minutes to tie down their load," said C.J. Frank, one of Deckard's three sons.
UDOT invited Frank to a news conference at its Murray maintenance grounds off of I-15 in hopes of persuading people to take care during the Independence Day holiday. Too many people toss their gear carelessly in a pickup bed after a weekend of boating or other activities, UDOT Executive Director John Njord said.
"Litter isn't just a nuisance, folks, it's dangerous," Njord said, "even deadly."
Scattered around the maintenance lot was the junk that highway crews have removed from freeways in recent weeks: a dresser from I-15 in Utah County, a 4-foot-tall soda cooler
One of Utah's two debris-caused fatal accidents last year, Deckard's, motivated the family to speak out and then some. Frank attended the news conference with his wife and child, and with his mother's longtime partner, Rebekah Moore. The family chose to speak out and provide a public service instead of being angry at the unknown pickup driver, said Moore, who adopted Deckard's youngest son, a 16-year-old, after her death.
Still, she said, "It was such a senseless act."
Frank choked up as he spoke by the smashed car on Tuesday, and later said it was the first he had seen it since his mother's accident.
"My heart broke" at the sight, he said. "It's like reliving it."
But Frank looks forward to making more good come from his mother's death. This summer he started studying at Weber State University's life-flight nursing program so he can help other families suffering trauma.
"I want to be able to relate to somebody else who's going through this," he said. "This is hopefully my way that I can pay back."
UDOT estimates that it hauls 8,000 one-ton truckloads of litter a year, and the cleanup costs taxpayers $2 million. The state averages about 500 debris-caused accidents a year, and two were fatal last year.
Utah law requires motorists to secure items in their vehicle. The Legislature last year increased fines to $250 for littering and $500 for lost debris.
