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Woman who crashed into deputy's SUV was allegedly distracted by puppy

By Ben Hooper
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Feb. 27 (UPI) -- A Utah sheriff's office said a driver who crashed her car head-on into a deputy's SUV had wandered out of her lane because she was playing with a puppy.

The Davis County Sheriff's Office posted photos to Facebook showing the aftermath of the car's head-on collision with the deputy's patrol SUV Thursday in Sunset.

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"Around 10:00 am a driver was playing with a puppy while traveling down the road at 30 mph in Sunset City," the Facebook post said. "The driver unknowingly swerved into the oncoming lane and looked up just in time to see the bumper of a DCSO patrol vehicle. Luckily no one was injured in this crash, but the vehicle and their wallet from the citations received were not so lucky."

Deputy Dave Passmore said he was only going about 9 mph at the time of the collision, but the car was traveling about 30 mph. He said he was baffled when he saw the car headed straight for him.

"I was expecting her to weave back over, out of the way," Passmore told KSL-TV. "She never did."

Passmore said he reviewed his dashboard camera footage and discovered the source of the 23-year-old driver's distraction: she was playing with a puppy instead of watching the road.

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"I don't know why she was messing with the puppy," Passmore said.

"It should have never happened," Passmore said. "If she needed to address an issue with the dog, if she had simply pulled over and dealt with it, none of this would have happened. It was 100 percent avoidable."

Sunset police were summoned to the scene and cited the woman for unsafe lane travel and negligent collision.

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