SALT LAKE CITY, Utah, Mar. 25, 2023 (Gephardt Daily) — The Utah Highway Patrol counted more than 180 crashes on Utah’s interstates Friday, troopers still clearing up one of the worst at midnight on the Legacy Highway near Farmington.
A melee of slide-offs on I-80 in Parley’s Canyon had a dozen cars sideways at mile marker 131 at about 1 p.m., but no serious incidents or injuries, said Trooper Robert Wright, public information officer. ‘It was a mess up there, but nothing major.”
“It was happening all over, lots of slide-offs, I’ve been on the phone since noon,” he said, noting the day totaled 180-plus crashes, and that’s on interstate highways alone, UHP’s jurisdiction. “People got used to driving in the good weather for a while I guess,” he told Gephardt Daily.
A woman survived her Mini-Cooper sliding under a semi-truck at 14000 South on I-15 northbound just before 8 p.m. near Draper. She had to be extricated from the car, but no injury. “Everyone walked away from that one,” Wright said.
A 9:47 p.m. chain collision on the Legacy Highway overpass near Farmington was less lucky, he said, with five people conveyed by ambulance from 19 vehicles piling up, including one semi. But injuries were not life-threatening, a broken leg the most severe reported.
“We still have a lot of troopers on scene, Wright said, but the roadway was set to re-open after more than two hours by midnight.
“People need to remember that overpasses are the quickest to ice over,” he said.
