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HUNTSVILLE — In the wake of another deadly crash along Ogden Canyon Road, Utah transportation officials on Thursday unveiled a proposed upgrade plan to make the narrow, winding road safer.
"We're considering it right now. Nothing is set in stone," said Mitch Shaw, spokesman for the Utah Department of Transporation.
The death of Lifetime Products CEO Richard Hendrickson and his daughter Sally in July in an accident along the roadway connecting Ogden and Pineview Reservoir prompted a strong public outcry and calls for safety improvements, spurring UDOT to consider change. Roads officials held an open house on Thursday in Huntsville to formally put forward proposed changes and collect feedback, coincidentally the day after another fatal mishap along the roadway, the fifth since 2015.
"It's always been dangerous," said Judi Culley, who lives in the Liberty area and attended Thursday's meeting. The narrow road curves along the Ogden River and is hemmed in on both sides by mountains.
Changes under consideration by UDOT along the 5-mile stretch of road formally known as state Route 39 include lowering the speed limit, restricting long vehicles given the many curves along the roadway, and improving sight lines for motorists — perhaps by straightening some curves. Shaw said there's no timeline for action should UDOT decide to implement change, but he said the response to the July 6 accident that killed Hendrickson and his daughter was unprecedented.
"We got tons of feedback from the public. I haven't had that much feedback on an issue," Shaw said.
The July accident occurred when a bulldozer that wasn't properly secured to the back of an eastbound truck fell off the vehicle while it was maneuvering a curve and landed on Hendrickson's vehicle in the westbound lane. Wednesday's accident occurred when a man driving east tried to pass a vehicle in front of him in a no-passing zone, crashing head-on into an oncoming vehicle. The driver of the eastbound car died.
"It's been crazy. There's lots of speeding," said Elia Knott, who lives in Ogden Canyon and helped conduct a survey of residents who live along the roadway and frequent users of the road. Around half of survey respondents said they feel unsafe or somewhat unsafe traversing the roadway, with speeding, the sorts of vehicles that use S.R. 39 and the size of the narrow road their chief concerns.
Culley thinks oversized vehicles ought to be prohibited from the roadway given their propensity to cross the roadway's center line because of the curves.
"Anything with a trailer should go over Trapper's Loop," she said, alluding to state Route 167, which connects to the Ogden Valley via I-84. "They can't stay on their side of the road."
Christine Brown, another Ogden Valley resident, questions whether lowering the speed limit — now 40 mph, she said — will have an impact since many seem to exceed it. She thinks many of the issues would be resolved if motorists abided by the speed limit and paid closer attention to their driving. What's more, she suspects visitors are the cause of many of the problems, not local motorists.
"I think the problem is when people navigate it who don't know the road," she said.
Knott said the survey found that many think law enforcement ought to be increased along the Ogden Canyon Road. "Respondents cumulatively felt that there was lack of effective law enforcement, and measures to manage traffic behavior could be critical in addressing safety concerns in this area," reads a summary of the survey.
However, the road is so narrow that it makes monitoring traffic difficult, she said. Law enforcement officials pursuing a speeder, for instance, would potentially have to travel all the way through the canyon to pull over an offender.
Shaw said straightening curves could be difficult given the lack of space in the narrow corridor and abutting mountains, but road officials do what they can. Earlier this year, UDOT added center rumble strips to part of the Ogden Canyon Road to help warn motorists when they cross the center line and improved the barrier between the Ogden River and the roadway in a 0.9-mile section. They've also upgraded bridges on the roadway and added signage to warn motorists of the dangers.
