GARDEN CITY, Utah, March 3, 2020 (Gephardt Daily) — Utah Highway Patrol troopers are on scene of a Garden City semi crash, the fourth of its kind in 18 months.
The crash occurred in the intersection of U.S. Highway 89 and Bear Lake Boulevard, said a tweet from UHP at 7:30 a.m. Tuesday.
A tweet from GoBearLake said: “The truck stopped about 40 feet from where the previous two trucks went through the garage buildings. No one was injured. No damage to anything else.”
A second tweet from GoBearLake said: “In the next few months UDOT is supposed to begin work on a runaway truck ramp about one mile before the location where the four truck crashes have occurred.”
UHP officials said inexperience on the part of the driver is being investigated as the cause.
“He’d never driven down an 8-10% grade before,” said the tweet from UHP. “Fortunately, buildings are no longer in the vicinity where semis have frequently blown through this intersection.”
Within the space of one week in August 2019, there were two semi crashes in the same area.
On Aug. 20, a dump truck driver required extraction after his vehicle crashed into storage buildings.
The dump truck, which was hauling asphalt, lost its brakes coming east down northbound U.S. 89 at mile marker 499 at the T-intersection of North Bear Lake Boulevard, said a press release from Utah Highway Patrol.
The truck drove through the intersection, through a parking lot in Raspberry Square and impacted three garages belonging to a condominium complex.
The driver and passenger were treated by medical personal at the scene and released.
The previous crash Aug. 15 occurred in the same area, according to UHP.
A semi lost its brakes as it approached the intersection and drove into the same storage buildings.
The driver sustained serious but non life-threatening injuries and was transported by ground ambulance to an area hospital.
A fourth crash on Oct. 10, 2018, killed the driver and injured his passenger.
The truck’s brakes may have been overheated and non-functional when he tried to make a turn from U.S. 89 onto State Route 30. The truck overturned and slid into Pugstones Sporting store, causing structural damage to the store, which was later demolished, according to UHP.
“The semi entered the intersection at a high rate of speed and the driver attempted to make a right turn onto Bear Lake Boulevard (SR-30). The semi went over the curb as its trailer began to overturn,” the DPS statement said. “It slammed into a building and the trailer struck the stop sign.”
Pugstones was a total loss and had to be demolished.
Garden City is a town in northwestern Rich County on the shores of Bear Lake.
