Safety solutions: Utah's Top 5 deadliest roads

SALT LAKE CITY — Summer is road trip season. That means more people are out, more cars on the road and more of a chance to get in a crash. The roads you take and how you drive could mean the difference between life and death. Which roads are the deadliest? KSL breaks down Utah's Top 5 deadliest roads, and the solutions aimed at getting you home safely.

Hitting the road in Utah can take you to so many places. The state is home to endless scenic views and thousands of miles of freeways and highways, but some are notorious for deadly crashes.

"I think it's the grace of God is the only reason why I'm here," said Landon Jacobson of Emery County, deadly crash survivor.

In 2015, he and his family were victims in a fatal crash on Utah's deadliest stretch of road — a short span of 4 miles in Spanish Fork Canyon. Coming home on the four-lane highway, a car merging at Thistle Junction pulled out right in front of them. Their cars collided, catapulting Jacobson's truck and trailer across the road, down the adjacent ravine, killing his wife Heather and their youngest son Broc, something Landon wasn't aware of until waking up from a coma weeks later.

"I would forget, and they would have to keep telling me, like, every day," Jacobson said.

"How many times do you think they had to tell you what happened?" asked KSL reporter Brian Carlson.

"I would think four to six times," Jacobson said.

"And you would forget every time?" Carlson asked.

"Yeah," Jacobson said.

Sadly, the cross remembering their crash isn't the only one at Thistle Junction. According to the Utah Department of Public Safety, this section of U.S. 6 in Spanish Fork Canyon has seen seven deadly crashes since 2021, the largest concentration of road fatalities in Utah, making it the No. 1 deadliest road segment in the entire state. No. 2 in Uintah County isn't far behind – the undivided 6-mile stretch of U.S. 40, immediately west of Vernal, has seen five deadly crashes, over the last five years… one every 2/10ths of a mile.

The remaining top five deadliest road segments are in a three-way tie, with four deadly crashes each since 2021.

• I-15 at the Point of Mountain, connecting drivers in Utah and Salt Lake Counties – 24% of the deadly crashes happening in Draper at 70 mph to 79 mph.
• A 7-mile run of I-80 in Utah's west desert, just east of the Salt Flats – 36% of the time, the deadly crash began with a car or truck rollover.
• Finally, the first 2 miles up American Fork Canyon, on the narrow road, with the mountain on one side and the American Fork River on the other.

Statewide, data shows most deadly crashes are caused by bad driver behavior, with speed playing a major factor.

"You get vehicles that are not watching or trying to push it too closely," said Lt. Cameron Roden, Utah Highway Patrol.

Roden patrolled or supervised the deadly stretch of Spanish Fork Canyon for seven years and responded to multiple deadly crashes there, including the Jacobson accident.

"It's definitely something that stays with you," Roden said. "A lot of the crashes, fatal crashes specifically that we've seen in these areas are from vehicles that are losing control and going into the opposing lanes of traffic and causing a head-on collision."

But what about dangers inherent to the roads themselves?

UDOT is constantly considering changes that could save lives. Construction to improve safety in Spanish Fork Canyon has already begun. UDOT installed a new concrete center median running much of the length of the deadliest stretch. Crews are installing new light poles to improve visibility and turning the intersection at Thistle Junction into an underpass that goes under U.S. 6.

"Anything we can do to cut down on those cross-over crashes, that's the goal of the safety projects like this," said John Gleason, UDOT public relations director.

State troopers encourage drivers to take responsibility, too.

"We just need to slow our speeds, adjust to what the conditions are," Roden said.

If not, the consequences can be irreversible. The Jacobson crash forever altered Landon's life — relearning how to walk, living with a severe brain injury, caring for his surviving children, all without his beloved wife and son.

"It's tough. I feel guilty cause I was the driver who took their lives away, you know? … it wasn't my fault, but it is, you know? I had a big trailer, was the driver. So I'm responsible for everyone in my vehicle, and driving and everything. You know?" Jacobson said.

A victim of Utah's deadliest roads, he hopes other drivers think about it when they get behind the wheel.

"I just want people to know that their little split decisions can change people's lives," Jacobson said.

Decisions made on the road, felt in hearts left beside them.

When examining some of the top bad behaviors leading to Utah's deadly crashes, researchers told KSL that it always points back to speed and driver error.

So if drivers can slow down, they improve the time they have to react, and possibly save a life.

To read more about Landon Jacobson's deadly crash, and the affect it had on him and his family, he had it documented in a book as a way to help him remember. It's entitled "Tell Me I Can't… I'll Show You I Can…" available on amazon.com.

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