According to Park City Fire District Battalion Chief Patrick Hardwood, the trailer truck crashed about 200 yards above the gate that is locked during the winter months. Harwood says the crash happened on the narrowest part of the road. A photo shows the tail of the truck hanging over the side of the road.
Harwood added that an investigation is underway. He wasn’t sure which direction the truck was headed, or why it crashed, but noted it was full of gravel.
The fire district’s Hazmat unit and fire engine responded to the crash after the truck started leaking oil and diesel fuel as a result of it being turned on its side.
“As far as I understood, there was no threat to the stream or anything like that,” Battalion Chief Harwood said. “The health department was notified and the building department and stuff like that, so they're going to investigate it as to the cause. But it looks like the hazmat is gonna be a non-issue. It's just gonna be a little cleanup.”
The driver, he added, did sustain minor injuries.
Brighton Estates property owner Mark Fisher, who has long been asking Park City officials to ensure the safety of those using Guardsman’s Pass, says he’s astounded the issue continues to be ignored.
“The driver is, okay, thank God,” Fisher said. “But he could have just as easily gone off the cliff. To see an 18 wheeler dangling off the cliff to the left side of the picture it's pretty shocking. The long and short of it is, we have been pressing the city put us on what is now known as Twisted Branch Road for at least four years. And the city has ignored us and acted like it's a UDOT issue when in fact the city is the entity that has to request UDOT in these matters to make a road change. UDOT manages roads for the whole state of Utah. They wait for the local municipality to make a request before they take action. Park City Municipal Corporation has not made that request and refuses to make that request. And so, things like this are left the way they are.”
Fisher says a traffic count shows that on average there are 2,400 trips up and down the road every weekday, and on weekends – the average daily trips jump to 3,000 or 4,000 trips per day. The road at its narrowest point is just over 15 feet wide. Fisher says he can’t understand why Park City refuses to let traffic travel on the safer Twisted Branch Road, which was built in order to allow Deer Valley Resort to build its Ruby chairlift over a state highway.
“This a shocking example of why the public needs to be put on the 24 foot wide road with curb and gutter built to UDOT standards,” Fisher said. “And it was promised in exchange for Deer Valley getting ski over the state highway to create the Empire ski area. And that promise was made in September of 1999. Here we in 2021 and the public still has not been put on the road. The safe road.”
It took more than 3 hours to clear and clean up the crash site.
