Utah DOT plans runaway ramp in area of recent truck crashes

GARDEN CITY, Utah – Utah transportation officials plan to install new type of runaway truck ramp above a highway junction after a third crash at the same location.

Utah Department of Transportation officials said the site at Garden City near northern Utah’s border with both Idaho and Wyoming would use a cable-arrest system already in use in Wyoming.

Department spokesman John Gleason said the location on U.S. 89 doesn’t lend itself to a traditional runaway design because of the lack of an incline along the downhill stretch near the junction with State Route 30.

He said officials were already discussing the project before the two most recent crashes occurred this month but that they created a sense of urgency.

A driver was killed in an October crash that destroyed a sporting goods store.