Inset: Matthew Daines (LinkedIn/Matthew Daines). Background: The crash scene in Springville, Utah, where Matthew Daines "heroically" died protecting his newlywed wife from an alleged drunk driver (KSTU/YouTube).
A Utah man is headed to prison after drunkenly mowing down and killing a father-to-be who "heroically" saved his wife just weeks before she found out she was pregnant.
Matthew Daines, 26, pushed his spouse out of the way of Travis McIntyre's Chevrolet Silverado as it came barreling toward them while they were walking on a sidewalk in Springville, according to a police press release. McIntyre pleaded guilty in May to automobile homicide while driving under the influence and was sentenced this week to five to 15 years in prison.
"You can't ever fix this, you can't ever take it back," said 4th District Court Judge Denise Porter at McIntyre's sentencing, according to local NBC affiliate KSL.
"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," McIntyre told the court. "From the bottom of my heart, I'm so sorry."
Daines was reportedly walking down a street in Springville near 40 East 400 South with his wife, Andrea, when McIntyre — who was driving a Chevrolet Silverado and pulling a trailer — "left the roadway" and came careening toward the couple.
"[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 a September 2025 press release. "His wife is safe and unharmed thanks to his heroic actions."
Officers arrived at the scene around 8:40 p.m. and immediately initiated lifesaving efforts until paramedics arrived. Daines was transported to a local hospital but "succumbed to his vast injuries," according to police. An "odor of alcohol" was reported to be coming from 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."
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