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Alex Cabrero Reporting There were more accidents in Parley's Canyon during today's morning rush hour. Last night we told you about a few crashes, including a couple of fatals, that have a lot of drivers concerned and UDOT trying to figure out what's going on.
In the past 72 hours, UHP troopers have worked more than a dozen crashes up this canyon. Why are they happening? UDOT thinks it's a mixture of morning frost that their brine solution can't dissolve because it's so cold outside, and drivers simply going too fast.
Crash, after crash, after crash, after crash.
Tpr. Anthony Carrubba, Utah Highway Patrol: "People do need to slow down."
Lately trooper Anthony Carrubba seems to never get a day without one.
Tpr. Anthony Carrubba: "I think we had maybe a half dozen all in the same stretch of road."
It might not be a big deal if you're talking about the nearly 400 mile stretch of Utah's I-15, but when you're talking about the 10-mile stretch of Parely's Canyon, all these crashes just don't seem right.
Tpr. Anthony Carrubba: "In the extremely cold temperatures, the solution that UDOT uses to try and break up the ice, the temperatures are actually too cold for it to do that, so it's just kind of forming a real think sheet of ice."
Normally that would be okay, except this sheet of ice is forming in Parley's Canyon, a place where the 65 miles per hour speed limit seems to just be a suggestion.
Tpr. Anthony Carrubba: "Pretty much any time of day, you can see people going 85, 90 miles per hour."
Trooper Carrubba says the fastest car he ever clocked in Parley's Canyon was going 124 miles an hour. We didn't see one of those today, but he did catch a driver doing 88.
Tpr. Anthony Carrubba: "The speed limit in the canyon is only 65."
Road conditions at the time of this pullover were dry, but even when it's wet and icy, trooper Carrubba says he clocks drivers still going just as fast, all the time.
Tpr. Anthony Carrubba: "That's where you can really run into problems, and you could lose control even faster."
It's especially dangerous when there's black ice on the roads you can't see.
UDOT is suggesting that drivers go 55 miles an hour through Parley's Canyon in the morning and at nights. It might help decrease the number of crashes, but that plan is all up to drivers.
