“Hero” Colorado deputy helps save lives during Texas dust storm pileup

By Olivia Young

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    Colorado (KCNC) — A Colorado deputy is being called a hero after his actions helped save lives in Texas.

On March 14, Mesa County Sheriff’s Deputy Phillip Peterson was caught in a historic dust storm in Canyon, Texas, along with his wife and four children, ages 10 to 16. The low visibility led to a 38-car pileup on Interstate 27.

Despite his family’s vehicles being hit multiple times and totaled, Peterson jumped into action to help others injured in the accidents. He was able to shelter and triage at least 15 people in his family’s U-Haul.

Deputy Peterson and his family were on their way home to Colorado with a U-Haul full of their belongings from his father’s Texas home when they suddenly entered the dust storm.

“Visibility got very, very, very low, very quickly,” Peterson said. “I could see immediately in front of us that there was an accident. I was able to pull to the left quickly, swerve out of the way and miss it. My wife, who was following behind me in our personal vehicle, also was able to miss it and get up behind me.”

Cars behind them couldn’t see or stop in time. One immediately hit the car carrying Peterson’s wife and children.

“She ended up getting hit three times. The U-Haul that I was in was struck two different times, and then obviously there were several accidents all around us, and cars kept coming in and just colliding with other vehicles and stuff like that,” Peterson said.

Thirty-eight cars had piled up, but the dust storm wasn’t done. It was the worst the Texas native had ever seen on U.S. soil.

“If you got out of your car, you couldn’t keep your eyes open for more than a second at a time, because the sand was just blowing into it. So you’re constantly blinking, and everybody’s trying to feel their way around because the visibility was next to nothing,” Peterson said.

After checking on his wife and kids, Peterson turned his attention to helping the many injured.

“The only shelter that was readily available at the time was obviously the back of the U-Haul. So pop the lock off that and open it up, and started trying to shuffle as many people as we could get into the back of it,” Peterson said.

When first responders arrived, they used the U-Haul as a mobile triage. Peterson said there were many injured people, some critical.

“We just emptied out the back of the U-Haul, everything that we had, just dumped it on the side of the road, and began to pile more and more people into the U-Haul. And that’s where the paramedics were all gathering, and everybody’s trying to triage those that are in need,” Peterson said.

Eventually, Peterson slowly drove the U-Haul out of the storm, where the injured could get care.

The Peterson family lost nearly all of their belongings, and their van was totaled. But thanks in part to the deputy’s quick work, all the injured survived.

“Right place, right time kind of thing. We just happened to be rolling through, and we had the availability and the ability to help people at that time with the U-Haul. So that was the obvious choice, because clearly, human lives and human comfort are more important than just possessions and objects,” Peterson said.

Peterson said his wife, Krystal, also played a key role in helping triage injured people, despite sustaining a concussion, bruised ribs, and whiplash herself. His children helped take care of a very young child whose mother had severe injuries.

Peterson credits the work of the first responders in Texas with saving lives, but those first responders say what Peterson did made all the difference. They are so grateful to the Peterson family that the Amarillo Professional Firefighters Association presented the family with a check, the Canyon Firefighters Association provided a rental vehicle, and the Red Cross provided a gas card to help them travel free of charge. Peterson said the Texas Department of Public Safety recently reached out to say they had retrieved some of the family’s belongings.

Peterson and two of his children were taken to the hospital in Texas, but the whole family is now home in Grand Junction, safe and sound.

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