A semitractor-trailer crashed in in Garden City on Tuesday after failing to negotiate the T-intersection at U.S. 89 and Bear Lake Boulevard.
On Tuesday morning around 6 a.m., the semi was headed out of Logan Canyon towards Garden City. According to Utah Highway Patrol Sgt. Cade Brenchley, the driver said his brakes were functioning fine near the runaway truck ramp — a 3.4 million cable system located roughly a mile from the intersection — but turned “spongy and soft” a half mile later. Brenchley said those characteristics are typical of overly hot brake pads.
The truck, carrying around 40,000 pounds of bottled water, tried to make a left turn at the intersection, rolled on its side and slid to a halt.
Rich County Sheriff Dale Stacey there were no fatalities, no injuries nor any property damage reported during Tuesday’s incident. Stacey said it marked at least the sixth crash at the intersection in the last handful of years.
In 2020, a cement truck lost its brakes while heading into Garden City. It was reported the truck’s brakes were aflame before it went through the intersection and then collided into the Lighthouse Landing Gift Shop. The driver’s injuries were not life threatening though he was transported to a hospital for treatment.
In 2018, a semi truck careened into the Pugstones Sporting building. At the time, UHP attributed the crash to overheated brakes and driver inexperience. The two men in the truck were transported for treatment and one died as a result of his injuries. The building was severely damaged.
The escape ramp was built in 2020 in response to the multitude of crashes. According to Stacey and Brenchley, no vehicles have used the ramp besides one elderly man driving in heavy rain who seemed to have used the ramp by mistake.
Brenchley said the potential repercussions of using the escape ramp incentivize semi drivers to avoid it. Brenchley said a truck may be damaged by the cables or a driver may be reprimanded by their employer.
“They’d rather roll the dice,” Brenchley said. “And that’s a bad gamble.”
Stacey and Brenchley said Laketown Canyon — located around 12 miles southeast of the T-intersection — has seen similar incidents. Stacey said semi drivers rarely use a runaway truck ramp located in the canyon and instead crash 50 to 100 yards away.
“They just don’t use it,” Stacey said. “There’s a big rock wall that they smack into.”
Stacey said he’d seen trucks carrying propane, cattle and consumer goods that all crashed similarly in Laketown Canyon. A driver using the ramp, according to Brenchley, would likely require a tow-truck to pull them out at the driver’s expense.
In 2019, a Rich County deputy directing traffic in the canyon was stuck by an out-of-control semi. Stacey said the deputy was pressed into the snow by the truck and was extremely injured.
“It should have killed him,” Stacey said. “He was out of work for a year.”
The driver that hit the deputy, according to Brenchley, wasn’t familiar with the area and had never driven in mountainous conditions — a similar throughline with many of the accidents.
“He quit after that,” Brenchley said.
Stacey, too, chalked up the bulk of the semi crashes to driver inexperience.
According to Brenchley, drivers of vehicles over 10,000 pounds are required by law to check their brakes at designated areas. He said the intersection may benefit from heightened law enforcement and imposing a lower speed limit for heavy vehicles.
Brenchley said the driver in this most recent incident, licensed out of Texas, could face a speeding violation as no mechanical error was found on the vehicle.