An off-duty Department of Public Safety helicopter pilot, as well as two others, were killed in a head-on car wreck last night on the U.S. 93 north of Wickenberg.
According to the DPS, Matthew Uhl, a 46-year-old civilian helicopter pilot with the DPS assigned to Kingman Air Rescue, was driving a DPS-owned Chevy Lumina north near milepost 188.
Heading south was two unidentified men in their 20s driving a a gray 1995 Ford Explorer with an out-of-state license plate.
The two men in the Explorer, DPS says, may have been trying to pass a
slower vehicle when the SUV went into the southbound lane, colliding
with Uhl head-on at a "high rate of speed."
All three men were pronounced dead at the scene.
Uhl was headed to Kingman, where he was scheduled to fly today.
"Matt was a true professional. He always had a great attitude and was
just the kind of employee you'd want to have. Matt was an exemplary
pilot and a terrific guy. This is a painful loss for all of us at DPS," Sergeant Martyn Fink of the DPS Aviation Unit says.
Uhl, a Chandler resident, is survived by his wife and four children, ranging in age from 8 to 14.
The DPS says there was no sign of impairment in either driver.
