SALT LAKE CITY — The Utah Department of Transportation has completed reconstruction of Thistle Junction, with safety improvements where U.S. 6 and U.S. 89 meet in Spanish Fork Canyon.
That's important because U.S. 6 has a reputation as one of Utah's most dangerous highways. To see how it compares with the rest of the state, FOX 13 News combined the Utah Department of Public Safety crash records with UDOT's traffic counts for every state highway.
The records cover Jan. 1, 2025, through Nov. 10, 2026, with figures for this year being considered preliminary at this point.
Utah recorded 463 fatal crashes in that period, with 489 deaths.
According to the data, 88% of crashes happened in urban areas, but the 12% of crashes on rural roads account for 38% of crash deaths, nearly 4 in 10. A rural crash is far more likely to be deadly, with one in 75 rural crashes being fatal, compared with one in 312 in urban areas.
Crash counts are higher on busy urban roads, but safety agencies allow for that by measuring deaths per 100 million miles driven.
On the urban stretches of state highways, the average is 0.63 deaths per 100 million miles. State Route 173, better known as 5300 and 5400 South in the Salt Lake Valley, has an average about eight times higher: 5.18 per 100 million driving miles.
| Rank | Route | Road | Deaths per 100M miles | Deaths |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | SR-173 | 5300/5400 South | 5.18 | 10 |
| 2 | SR-172 | 5600 West | 3.04 | 6 |
| 3 | SR-126 | 1900 West / Main Street (Roy, Sunset, Clearfield, Layton) | 2.49 | 7 |
| 4 | SR-171 | 3500 South | 1.69 | 5 |
| 5 | SR-68 | Redwood Road | 1.59 | 13 |
| 6 | SR-85 | Mountain View Corridor | 1.40 | 8 |
| 7 | US-89 | Urban stretches statewide | 1.06 | 21 |
Urban stretches of state routes with five or more deaths, Jan. 1, 2025, to Nov. 10, 2026.
Salt Lake County roads dominate the list. State Route 126 in Davis and Weber counties ranks third.
On rural stretches of state highways, the average is 0.92 deaths per 100 million miles, higher than the urban average. U.S. 6 has the highest rate on the rural list, at 1.59, and Interstate 15 is far lower, at 0.22.
| Rank | Route | Deaths per 100M miles | Deaths |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | US-6 | 1.59 | 13 |
| 2 | US-89 | 1.10 | 9 |
| 3 | US-40 | 1.00 | 9 |
| 4 | I-84 | 1.00 | 7 |
| 5 | I-70 | 0.98 | 11 |
| 6 | I-80 | 0.76 | 16 |
| 7 | I-15 | 0.22 | 9 |
Rural stretches of state routes with five or more deaths, Jan. 1, 2025, to Nov. 10, 2026.
In all, 16 people died in 16 fatal crashes on U.S. 6 during the period of the data we examined. Those crashes were spread along the highway: 7 in Utah County, 4 in Carbon County, 2 each in Juab and Emery counties, and one in Millard County.
One of the 16 fatal accidents happened at Thistle Junction, a two-vehicle crash in July 2025.
Mile for mile, 5400 South has been riskier than U.S. 6. But the rate measures risk per mile, not per trip. A long highway drive adds up the miles, so a trip from the Wasatch Front to I-70 on Highway 6 carries more total risk than a quick commute across the Salt Lake Valley.
That helps explain why rural roads account for nearly 4 in 10 deaths.
Statewide, head-on crashes are far more likely to turn deadly on rural roads. Six of the 16 fatalities on Highway 6 in this period were head-on or oncoming sideswipe collisions.
About one in nine rural head-on crashes was fatal (20 of 171). In urban areas, it was one in 68 (24 of 1,632).
DRIVEN TO CHANGE
