Estimated read time: 5-6 minutes
SPANISH FORK — Two bystanders did not hesitate before jumping into the Spanish Fork River Friday night to save a man whose truck rolled into the freezing water.
Stefania Fox, 34, was driving up Arrowhead Trail after her son's soccer game about 8 p.m. when she saw the crash. "I didn't see, like, brake lights or anything as he was flying down the embankment," she said.
Fox works as a paramedic for Unified Fire Authority in Salt Lake County and was the only one to see the vehicle disappear under the bridge at the intersection of Main Street and Arrowhead Trial.
"I'm thinking, medically, that he potentially was already unconscious like he passed out at the wheel, and that's why he wrecked," Fox said. She pulled into the nearby River Bridge Event Center parking lot to check it out.
The wreck was in the same location as the deadly March 2015 crash, where Lynn Jennifer "Jenny" Groesbeck was killed, but her 18-month-old daughter Lily was found 14 hours later alive and strapped into her upside-down car seat.
The truck on Friday "was positioned exactly underneath the bridge, so you would not have been able to see it from the road," Fox said.
Preston Haun, 54, heard the wreck and followed Fox into the parking lot to help. The driver "probably crossed a couple of lanes of traffic — there's probably 20 ft of rocks and fields, and then the embankment then drops down, I guess, 15 or 20 feet, then you got the river," Haun said.
Haun's wife called 911 while he and Fox jumped into the icy river.
"We were checking the doors," Haun said. "We couldn't get anything open, and then me and (Fox) were trying to lift the truck as much as we could, but we couldn't, of course, get much more than a foot or two."
The water went up to Haun's waist, but at 5-foot-4, Fox was submerged up to her collarbone as she tried to navigate the current and find a way inside the truck.
"We were frantically going around because time is really starting to lapse," Haun said, "and I'm just like, this guy is gonna die."
"We just tried everything we could to get his doors to budge or windows to break ... time kind of slows down, but it was probably like four or five minutes," according to Fox. "(Haun) and I looked at each other and we're like, 'It's been too long.'"
"All of a sudden on the right-hand side, we can see the top of his head," Haun said, "and we heard a gurgling, or him just desperately trying to call for help."
The duo swam around to the truck's window and pulled the man free, floating downstream while pulling his body onto the rocky embankment. "It was just kind of was miraculous, honestly," Fox said. "He was conscious; he was able to tell me his name and his birth date." Haun ripped off his sweater and gave it to Fox, who used the dry upper half to staunch the bleeding from a "pretty good laceration to his head," Fox said.
"I just held pressure on that," she said. "He had some other wounds he was bleeding from, but the great thing was that he was alive and conscious."
The man had cuts on his arms and leg, according to Haun, but first responders were quick to the scene. Jack Urquart, spokesman for Spanish Fork, said the driver was transported in stable condition. The Utah Valley Special Response Team was called "due to mid-level river flows and hazardous materials, including fuel leaking from the vehicle into the waterway," Urquart wrote in a release sent out Saturday.
The two rescuers were warmed up and went home full of adrenaline.
Spanish Fork Fire Chief Eddie Hales said, "We are deeply appreciative of the bravery displayed by these individuals," and wanted to remind the public "of the significant dangers posed by freezing water and unknown conditions. Personal safety should always be your top priority."
Fox said her reaction was instinct — following eight years as a first responder.
"I'm a paramedic, so it's kind of in my blood to just, I don't know, jump in and do what I need to do," she said. "It is a different circumstance because normally, we get called a little bit after the situation happens, and we don't ever really get to watch it unfold."
Both rescuers downplayed their role in the act, praising one another for jumping in. "I do this for my job," said Fox. "For somebody, just a random citizen, to also feel inclined to help somebody, I think it's pretty cool."
Little did she know, this was not Haun's first time playing the hero. In 2018, he tackled a man in a local pizza shop who had been threatening customers with a knife.
Tragically, the road where this accident happened was the same road Haun's son, 17-year-old Nathan Haun, was struck by a truck and killed while walking home from a party in 2013.
Preston Haun and his wife still haven't found who did it.
"It's a coincidence, but the Arrowhead trail that we were on when we were waiting in that light on Main Street — it was a couple of miles from there where he was hit," Preston Haun said. "It's been, you know, it's been kind of a wild 10 years."
He is looking forward to quietly working his maintenance job, which he loves, until retirement. Fox will be receiving an award for being a lifesaver at an upcoming Spanish Fork City Council meeting.
"I'm just grateful (the driver is) alive and that he's well," Fox said. "That he's OK and can get better."
