Third crash in a year, second in a week.

Bobbie Bicknell Coray, Reporter
Rich Civic Times

Photos by Bobbie Coray

GARDEN CITY, Utah.  August 20, 2019.  At 2:30 p.m. Tuesday, a dump truck carrying over 17 tones of asphalt crashed through the intersection of Logan Road and Highway 30. It hit the concrete foundation of the storage garages below Raspberry Square, started on fire and continued to catapult through the garage landing just a few feet from one of the condominiums.  People in neighboring buildings heard a very  loud boom and then the splintering of the building. Eye witnesses, Cheryl Fifield and Lori Mauer who had just moved their car said if it had happened a few moments before they would have been parked in the path.  Clint England, had just turned out of the intersection three seconds from when the speeding truck hurtled through the intersection.  Heather Moldenhaur came out from her office when she heard a noise like the roof being torn off her building.

The Garden City Fire District truck was there within minutes and put out the fire in the truck and a Hazmat Unit was called to take care of the oil and asphalt spread out in the driveway down to the lake.

There was a second asphalt carrying truck from the same company,  with smoking brakes following the first. That driver managed to turn the corner and parked in front of the LDS Church opposite Raspberry Square.  Nadine Sprouse of Garden City talked to him about his brakes smoking and he said "this is too dangerous, I'm not driving anymore."

The driver and passenger in the first truck had minor injuries.  That no  one was killed is a miracle.  Alicia Hobson's parents had been trailing their boat through the intersection just 5 seconds before the crash.  If it had been a weekend, the square would have been filled with tourists.

RCTonline reached out to Vic Saunders, Region One spokesman for UDOT and he responded  "We've been conducting a study since last October, about the options available to us on US-89 in Garden City. We have the results of the study back and the funding to construct a permanent Brake Check Area on the east side of the Summit of Logan Canyon, where trucks will be required to stop and check their brakes before heading downhill.

Additionally, we're planning to install a runaway Truck Arresting System (TAS) at a place to be determined  west of Garden City, where trucks that have lost their brakes can,  in a safe and controlled way, be arrested and stopped before coming into town.

Our process to do this will take a little time, we have to acquire right of way, design it, and go through the process of securing a contractor. But we hope to be able to begin construction on it the first thing next spring. In the interim, UDOT will be adding a temporary Brake Check Area at the summit, and placing additional  warning signage prior to, and at the Summit of Logan Canyon, to heighten awareness of the grade and the need to use proper braking procedures and techniques when ascending the grade into Garden City on US-89."

Trucks carrying a GVW of 10,000 or more were being pulled over at the rest stop this week and additional signage has been added.  Ironically another crash was averted as a truck with smoking brakes the next day pulled off into a field above the Chevron Station.

Locals have suggested that as you approach the intersection of Highway 89 and Highway 30 that you look west to make sure there is no speeding vehicle which may not have brakes.

City leaders have contacted UDOT and legislators for additional help.  Mayor Leonhardt said that he was pleased with their response.