Inset: Matthew Daines (LinkedIn/Matthew Daines). Background: The crash site in Springville, Utah, where Daines died while protecting his newlywed wife from an alleged drunken driver (KSTU/YouTube).
A Utah man has been sentenced to prison for driving drunk and fatally striking a soon-to-be father who authorities say saved his wife’s life in the moments before he was hit.
Matthew Daines, 26, pushed his wife out of the path of Travis McIntyre’s Chevrolet Silverado as the truck veered toward them while they were walking along a sidewalk in Springville, police said in a press release. McIntyre pleaded guilty in May to automobile homicide while driving under the influence and was sentenced this week to serve five to 15 years behind bars.
“You can’t ever fix this, you can’t ever take it back,” 4th District Court Judge Denise Porter said during McIntyre’s sentencing, according to local NBC affiliate KSL.
McIntyre apologized in court, saying, “I’m not to a point where I can even ask for forgiveness, I’m a long ways from even forgiving myself, let alone asking others to. From the bottom of my heart, I’m so sorry.”
Daines and his wife, Andrea, were walking near 40 East 400 South in Springville when McIntyre, who was driving a Chevrolet Silverado and towing a trailer, left the road and headed toward the couple, according to reports.
“[Daines], walking next to his wife, saw the truck driving toward the both of them, and heroically pushed his wife out of the way,” the Springville Police Department said in its September 2025 release. “His wife is safe and unharmed thanks to his heroic actions.”
Police said officers reached the scene at about 8:40 p.m. and began lifesaving measures until paramedics arrived. Daines was taken to a nearby hospital, where he later died from what authorities described as “vast injuries.” Investigators also reported smelling alcohol on McIntyre after the crash.
Police launched a DUI investigation and McIntyre was found to be more than six times over the legal limit for alcohol. Cops arrested him for vehicular homicide, DUI, and several other charges.
“Matthew Daines sealed his life with the final act of sacrifice to save his wife and child from the defendant,” Deputy Utah County Attorney Ryan McBride said at McIntyre’s sentencing. “No sentence this court can impose will change the fact that Andrea and his daughter … will go through life without him.”
State marriage records show that Daines and his wife, who is not being identified at the request of police and her family, received a marriage license in July 2025, just months before his death.
“I’ve prayed for a girl like her to come into my life for years now, and now she is finally here,” Daines wrote in a journal entry that his father read at McIntyre’s sentencing. “I want to have a wonderful and long life with Andrea that leads into eternity,” Daines wrote in another entry. “I’m trying so hard to love her with all my heart.”
Porter called McIntyre out in court for not being “bothered to call an Uber” despite having a history of driving drunk.
“There is a room full of people sitting behind you from at least two different extended families that you have destroyed,” Porter told McIntyre. “This man lost his life saving his wife and his unborn child because you couldn’t be bothered.”
