Petition to make Ogden Canyon safer goes viral after crash leaves two dead

OGDEN — “There are human lives which are at risk every day on this road,” said Todd Caron.

He, like many others in Weber County, utilizes state Route 39, more commonly known as Ogden Canyon, regularly.

“The canyon is very narrow in many places. It’s really just two lanes of traffic, standard lanes of traffic with little to no shoulder whatsoever,” he said.

Mix that with large, oversized vehicles, Caron said the road can become dangerous.

“These vehicles have a difficult time staying in their lane of traffic in large part because the width of the road itself and also the curvy nature of the road, it follows the contours of the river and it’s not a straight line,” he said.

On Saturday, two people were killed and three others were sent to the hospital after the Utah Highway Patrol says a bulldozer fell off a tow truck and onto an SUV with the victims inside. Caron, despite having no personal connection to the victims, said he felt compelled to do something.

“I don’t want these two issues to get blurred,” he said. “What happened on Saturday is an absolute tragedy. And without question, my heart and my prayers go out to the family over this. But in terms of the danger that this road presents to the residents and even the visitors to the valley, it’s real and it needs to be looked at.”

Online petition

Caron started a petition online asking officials to look into restrictions for large vehicles that travel through Ogden Canyon. At last check, it had more than 1,500 signatures, just one day after it was created.

“What I’m asking for here is that we have somebody take a quantifiable look at the type of vehicles that are utilizing this road and make a real-life determination,” he said.

State troopers said the crash is still under investigation. A spokesperson said some roads across the state have curfews for oversized loads that are permitted. There are no curfews on weekends and it’s unclear if the tow truck carrying the bulldozer was permitted.

A spokesperson for the Utah Department of Transportation said they would wait to comment on this until the investigation nears an end, but added because it’s a state road, UDOT typically does not restrict access to specific vehicles.

Caron said he understands the crash is still under investigation but hopes local officials will investigate the matter.

“We can’t undo the past, unfortunately,” he said. “But what we can do is we can address the present and, you know, see change in the future. And if we don’t get some measure of safety involved on the canyon, this will happen again.”