A truck driver is facing multiple felony charges for allegedly injuring a Utah Highway Patrol officer while refusing to comply with a road closure last month.
On Tuesday, October 27, 61 year old truck driver Barry Loveall was officially charged with assault against a police officer, failing to respond to an officer’s signal to stop, failing to stop for an injury accident, and restricted use of a closed highway.
The charges stem from a September 15 incident that occurred in Salt Lake City after a trooper spotted a fuel spill on an I-215 off ramp.
The trooper then used his vehicle and traffic cones to set up a roadblock and activated his emergency lights. An incident management truck with activated lights also arrived on the scene to assist with the spill.
It was then that police say that Loveall “went around the orange cones to turn left to go toward the I-215 southbound on-ramp and was passing the incident management truck.”
The trooper climbed up on the semi’s running board to tell Loveall to pull over, but he allegedly refused and started picking up speed as he headed toward the ramp.
Court documents say that “fearing for his life, (the trooper) jumped from the moving vehicle” and rolled several times as he hit the ground. He suffered minor injuries to his hip and back.
Police were able to locate Loveall at a convenience store parking lot and arrested him at gunpoint.
Loveall later told investigators that he had driven off because he thought the trooper was a construction worker.