Utah man recovering after falling 40 feet off a highway overpass
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Mike Anderson, KSL TV
FARMINGTON, Utah (KSL TV) — A Farmington man suffered serious injuries after falling 40 feet from a highway overpass.
Hayden Gurman was running on the south side of the street where you might think there could be a sidewalk on the other side of the barrier.
Police believe that’s what he was thinking when he ran across the street and jumped through.
“He’s strong, loves to work out,” his wife Lisa Gurman said. “I just feel so bad for him. He doesn’t even know this has happened to him yet.”
She said police told her that her husband was simply trying to get off the road, away from traffic.
“And he assumed there would be a sidewalk or a path and there wasn’t and so they just saw him come over and then he fell,” she said. “He just has a lot of injuries and their biggest concern has been internal bleeding.”
The very active father of five fell along Glovers Lane, up the street from Farmington High School.
Another runner made that same mistake eight years ago, also surviving some serious injuries. The Utah Department of Transportation has surveyed the area.
“So the area is safe if it’s used properly,” said Mitch Shaw with UDOT. “We’ve got a big pedestrian structure that spans across I-15.”
The Gurman family asked UDOT and Farmington City to take a second look.
“Yeah, it’s concerning to think that this could happen to someone else,” Lisa Gurman said.
Hayden Gurman teaches seminary over by Viewmont High School, and already a former student has put together a GoFundMe page to help the family pay for medical expenses.
“We can tell from the response of the community and his friends and family and neighbors and students and parents, obviously we can tell that people love him,” Lisa Gurman said. “He really is the most incredible human that I’ve ever met, so I’m heartbroken that this happened to him.”
The Farmington City manager said he will look into the possibility of placing signs along the barrier to let people know there is a gap. When the first incident happened eight years ago he thought it seemed like a fluke, but having a second incident is a reason to take a closer look at the possibilities.