UDOT bans long trucks from Ogden Canyon Road to bolster safety

OGDEN — The Utah Department of Transportation is banning vehicles longer than 50 feet from the Ogden Canyon Road in Weber County to bolster driver safety along the narrow, winding corridor.

The 5-mile section of road, bordered by mountains on both sides, links Ogden and the Ogden Valley and has been the site of five deaths resulting from crashes since 2015. Most recently, a July 6, 2024, crash killed Lifetime Products President Richard David Hendrickson and his daughter, Sally; and an Oct. 23, 2024, a crash killed a Salt Lake City man.

“It’s up to us to create the best engineering solutions possible to help keep people safe. But this won’t prevent every crash. We need the public to help out, too,” UDOT spokesman Mitch Shaw said in a statement. The length restriction takes effect next Monday, Sept. 22, and Shaw said Utah Highway Patrol and Weber County Sheriff’s Office officials will enforce the new rule.

The restriction along state Route 39, as the road is formally known, is one of several safety measures roads officials have implemented of late amid clamoring for changealong the corridor. A study found that vehicles longer than 50 feet “cannot travel through some sections, including the Narrows, without encroaching on the opposite lane,” leading to the new restriction, UDOT said in a statement. A standard semitractor-trailer is 70 feet long, according to Schneider, a trucking company.

The Narrows is a particularly tight section west of the Indian Trail trailhead. UDOT said the speed limit in the section will be reduced to 35 mph, down from 40 mph in other sections, and that “radar speed feedback” signs would be installed in the zone.

UDOT also installed centerline rumble strips in the road section and added additional “no passing” and “curve warning” signage to bolster safety. UDOT held an open house in Huntsville last year to present proposed safety changes and gather feedback from the public on the issue.

“We really need people to pay attention, slow down and put down the distractions, especially when driving in the canyon,” Shaw said.

Among other things, UDOT called on drivers to secure loads they’re hauling and to maintain a safe distance from cars in front of them. The July 6, 2024, crash 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.

In the Oct. 23, 2024, crash, an eastbound vehicle attempting to pass another car in a no-passing zone crashed head-on into a westbound vehicle. The driver of the eastbound car, Quincie Holman, died.

Earlier this summer, UDOT covered part of a rock wall abutting state Route 158 in the Ogden Valley highway with heavy wire mesh to guard against the possibility of a rockfall onto the roadway. S.R. 158 meets S.R. 39 on the west end of Pineview Reservoir, the eastern endpoint of the curvy section that’s the focus of the vehicle length restriction.

Correction: In an earlier version, Richard David Hendrickson, the late president of Lifetime Products, was incorrectly identified as David Hendrickson.