By Michelle Witte
Drivers are advised to be especially careful while driving on the freeway this holiday season. In addition to the usual dangers of winter road conditions, a month-long string of rock-throwing incidents continues to plague Utah drivers traveling on Interstates 15 and 80.
The most recent, of the 27 incidents, happened early Wednesday morning when Ben Bowers of Bountiful drove his family home from the airport. A golf-ball sized rock shattered the driver”s side window, shattering glass on Bowers and his family as they drove north on I-15 near the Davis County border.
The recent onslaught of rock-throwing incidents continues to baffle the Utah Highway Patrol, who arrested a man last month in connection with the incidents.
Investigators arrested Michael J. Purdy, 22, a local transient they believed responsible for the string of bizarre attacks. Police found Purdy at a transient camp about an hour after a rock-throwing incident occurred Nov. 19 near I-80.
The incidents started Nov. 5 when baseball-sized rocks landed on cars driving on I-15. The rocks were thrown up onto the freeway from underneath or from over the sound walls. So far, only one injury has been reported involving a man hit in the throat by a rock.
Usually only one vehicle is hit each time rocks are thrown, said Sgt. Wade Breur of the Utah Highway Patrol.
“The day that Purdy was arrested, he had actually hit three vehicles,” Breur said. “He was just randomly throwing rocks up onto the Interstate from down below on the surface streets.”
The attacks continue to plague commuters, however, sending troopers on another search for the culprit. Since Purdy”s arrest, police have responded to 18 more rock-throwing incidents. Three of the cases to the arrest remain unsolved as well.
Troopers do not have any suspects at the moment, but are continuing to follow up on several leads. They are heavily patrolling the areas where incidents have occurred, many of which have large populations of transients.
If a vehicle is hit by a rock coming from the side of the road, the driver should safely pull over to the side of the road and contact police immediately, Breur said. The faster troopers find out about the incidents, the better their chances of finding the culprit.
