OGDEN — Utah Highway Patrol Trooper Alex Williams says it was happenstance that he was driving north on Interstate 15 on June 25, when a frantic motorist waved him over, pointing to a car upside down in a ditch.
“I was off-duty, heading down to Ogden and got to Smith and Edwards (at the Weber County line) when I figured it wasn’t going to work out for the day,” Williams said. So Williams turned around and headed back to Brigham City, where he lives.
Between 1100 South and the Perry rest stop, the motorist waved him over. There, Heidi Orosco’s car was upside down in a ditch, the inside of the car filling with water, with Orosco still in it. Williams didn’t know the woman’s plight “until I opened the door and everything’s floating,” he said.
He quickly cut Orosco’s seat belt, pulled her head up out of the water, saw water drain out of her mouth, then heard her take a few gasping breaths.
He held her out of the water so she could breathe for 20 minutes until rescuers arrived and pulled her out.
