Warning: Some may find this video disturbing
LOGAN, Utah — Shocking dashcam video shows Utah Highway Patrol Sergeant Cade Brenchley being hit by a car while responding to a crash in Sardine Canyon over the weekend.
“I’m truly grateful to be sitting here talking to you,” said Brenchley, two days after the hard-to-watch incident was recorded by his dash camera. “It was not my favorite day.”
Sitting with his wife and four children at the Logan Regional Medical Center, Brenchley described the conditions Sunday night when responding to several crashes in Sardine Canyon.
“It was very slick and slushy and the roads were snow covered,” said Brenchley.
He had just gotten out of his patrol car to help a stranded driver when everything went black. What Brenchley didn’t see was the driver behind him lose control and slam into him, sending the trooper flying through the air and into the other vehicle.
“I woke up and saw snow and I was laying there and it knocked the wind out of me and I was gasping for breath,” he said.
He was rushed to the hospital but somehow his only injuries were four broken ribs, a broken shoulder blade, and road rash.
“It’s miraculous though that this is all I have,” said Brenchley. He added that the driver who struck him not only stopped to check on him as he lay in the road, but later visited Brenchley in the hospital.
“She’s not to be vilified,” Brenchley said. “She did make a mistake and I think she’s learned from it. (I’m) very grateful that she came with some of her passengers to come and see me.”
His wife, Lindsay, has only watched the video once.
“Even knowing he’s okay, I don’t like watching him fly through the air like that. It’s intense,” said Lindsay Brenchley.
However, she’s hoping other people will watch it and learn from it.
“When there’s snow on the road you just need to check your ego and slow down,” said Brenchley. “Luckily for me, I have a brother in heaven who’s watching my back.”
Brenchley is referring to fellow UHP Trooper, Eric Ellsworth, who died after being hit by a car on the job in 2016. It’s what his daughter, 14-year-old Alexandra Brenchley, thought about immediately when she heard about her dad.
“I was just crying and I went up to my mom and my mom was like ‘OK, listen, you need to be strong,'” said Alexandra Brenchley.
“Could’ve taken me away from my kids and you know what we watched the video and by all means, it probably should have,” said Brenchley.
The Utah High Patrol said in the first three months of 2018, Utah has already surpassed the number of troopers hit compared to the previous year. Since January 1, 11 troopers have been hit on the road. In 2017, ten troopers were hit. Brenchley hopes by sharing his story, he can help stop that growing number so other families don’t have to rely on miracles.
“Our department is thankful to the multiple bystanders who came to the aide of Sgt. Brenchley after he was struck,” the Department of Public Safety said in a press release. “The dash cam video shows many people on the scene who stopped to offer aide and called for help on his car radio.”
