Salt Lake City's crash problem has a shape to it. Ask the Utah Department of Transportation (UDOT) or Salt Lake City police where serious crashes cluster, and the same handful of streets keep coming up: Redwood Road, State Street, Bangerter Highway, and the intersections where they cross busy east-west arterials. If you were just in a wreck at one of them, you're not alone, and the pattern in the data helps explain why it happened.
In 2024, Utah's Highway Safety Office recorded 59,437 crashes statewide, 27,094 injuries, and 277 deaths in its final tally, or roughly one crash every 8.8 minutes1. UDOT and the Utah Highway Patrol's preliminary count, released the following January, had put that year's toll slightly higher at 281, including 43 pedestrians, 7 bicyclists, and 69 people killed in intersection-related crashes, together with a 15-year high in motorcycle deaths2. One of those motorcycle crashes happened at the I-15 exit ramp near 2100 South in Salt Lake City2. Pedestrians and cyclists combined made up roughly a third of the state's traffic deaths that year2. Salt Lake County had more crashes and more fatal crashes than any other county in the state in 2024, and its crash rate per mile driven ranked second highest statewide1. Preliminary 2025 numbers, released by UDOT and the Department of Public Safety in January 2026, show 264 fatalities statewide, the lowest total since 2019, even as motorcyclist deaths rose 32 percent and teen driver deaths nearly doubled, from 18 to 313.
The corridors that keep showing up
The last time UDOT published a full ranked list of its worst intersections, every one of the ten highest-crash locations on the state highway system sat inside Salt Lake County4. State Street at 4500 South in Murray topped it, with 166 crashes over the three years UDOT reviewed. Redwood Road's intersections with 3500 South and 4100 South followed, at 125 and 120 crashes. Bangerter Highway added two more entries, at 9000 South (105 crashes) and 4700 South (104)4. UDOT's own analysis at the time attributed 94 percent of crashes to driver behavior rather than road design4.
That ranking is now a decade old, but the roads haven't changed, and neither has the pattern. Redwood Road, State Street, 700 East, 800 South, and 900 West make up the core of Salt Lake City's current high-injury network, the small share of streets that account for a disproportionate share of serious and fatal crashes5. At least five people were killed on Redwood Road between 2021 and early 2023 alone6. In October 2022, a driver struck and killed a man crossing State Street near 1000 South, in a crosswalk spanning nine lanes of traffic6. Most of these streets, including Redwood Road, 700 East, Foothill Drive, 400 South, and all of State Street, are owned and controlled by the state rather than the city, which limits how much Salt Lake City can change on its own6.
What the recent numbers show
Salt Lake City recorded 26 traffic deaths in 2022, about 8 percent of that year's statewide total, including 11-year-old Winnie Wolfgramm, a Bonneville Elementary student struck and killed by a pickup truck near the city's East Bench neighborhood that November7. Her death, among others that year, pushed Mayor Erin Mendenhall to commit Salt Lake City to the Vision Zero Network in January 2023, with a goal of zero traffic deaths and serious injuries by 20358. "Even one traffic fatality is too much," Mendenhall said. "Our goal has to be zero."5
The city cut speed limits to 20 mph on city-managed streets that same year7. Deaths have leveled off since, though they haven't disappeared. On October 2, 2024, a car lost control at 743 South 700 East, struck a parked vehicle, and killed a woman on the sidewalk, the city's tenth traffic death of that year9. By Sweet Streets SLC's count, Salt Lake City saw 12 traffic deaths in 2025, split between 5 on city-owned streets and 7 on state-owned streets running through the city, a total similar to 2023 and 202410.
Money going toward the worst streets
Salt Lake City's 2025 capital budget put $2.3 million toward Vision Zero corridor improvements on Redwood Road, 900 West, and 800 South10. The Wasatch Front Regional Council has also granted the city additional funding earmarked for road safety upgrades5. Fixes already rolled out elsewhere in the city include leading pedestrian intervals, which give people in crosswalks a head start of several seconds before turning traffic gets a green light, and elevated crosswalks near schools5. A citywide Safe Streets Action Plan, meant to set priorities for which intersections get engineering fixes next, is due out in draft form in March 202610.
If you're hurt at one of these intersections
A crash at a known high-risk intersection doesn't change the basics of what to do afterward. Call 911 so Salt Lake City police or the Utah Highway Patrol can respond and write a report, get checked out by a medical provider even if you feel fine at the scene, and photograph the intersection, the vehicles, and any skid marks or signal timing before anything gets cleared away. Get the other driver's insurance information and contact details for any witnesses before they leave, since witnesses can be hard to track down later. If the crash happened on a UDOT-owned road like State Street or Redwood Road, that report feeds into the same state crash database UDOT uses to decide where safety funding goes next, so an accurate report matters beyond your own claim.
If you're dealing with an insurance company, or wondering whether the design of the intersection itself played a part in what happened, an attorney who handles these cases regularly can help sort out fault and damages. You can find one through the legal directory.
This article is general information, not legal advice.
Sources
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Utah Highway Safety Office, "2024 Crash Fact Sheet," https://highwaysafety.utah.gov/wp-content/uploads/sites/22/2025/10/2024-Crash-Fact-Sheet.pdf
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KSL.com, "UDOT, UHP: 281 people were killed on Utah roads in 2024," https://www.ksl.com/article/51223905/udot-uhp-281-people-were-killed-on-utah-roads-in-2024
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UDOT Connect, "UDOT and DPS release 2025 statewide traffic fatality numbers," Jan. 6, 2026, https://connect.udot.utah.gov/2026/01/06/udot-and-dps-release-2025-statewide-traffic-fatality-numbers/
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The Salt Lake Tribune, "Driver alert: Here are Utah's most crash-prone intersections, freeway stretches," July 1, 2016, https://archive.sltrib.com/article.php?id=4036147&itype=CMSID
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KUTV, "Salt Lake City adds more safety measures to roads in effort of zero traffic deaths by 2035," https://kutv.com/news/2news-investigates/salt-lake-city-adds-more-safety-measures-to-roads-in-effort-of-zero-traffic-deaths-by-2035-vision-zero-network-utah-zero-pedestrian-cyclist-death-sign-design
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Building Salt Lake, "After a wave of traffic violence, Salt Lake City commits to Vision Zero," Jan. 11, 2023, https://buildingsaltlake.com/after-a-wave-of-traffic-violence-salt-lake-city-commits-to-vision-zero/
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KSL.com, "'Not good enough': Salt Lake plans to join national network after rise in traffic deaths," https://www.ksl.com/article/50555609/not-good-enough-salt-lake-plans-to-join-national-network-after-rise-in-traffic-deaths
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Salt Lake City government, "SLC commits to join Vision Zero Network, with goal to eliminate all traffic-related fatalities and severe injuries," Jan. 11, 2023, https://www.slc.gov/blog/2023/01/11/slc-commits-to-join-vision-zero-network-with-goal-to-eliminate-all-traffic-related-fatalities-and-severe-injuries/
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Salt Lake City Police Department, "SLCPD Investigating a Deadly Crash on 700 East," Oct. 2, 2024, https://police.slc.gov/2024/10/02/slcpd-investigating-a-deadly-crash-on-700-east/
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Sweet Streets SLC, "Vision Zero Update, January 2026," https://sweetstreetsslc.org/news/vision-zero-jan2026