Chandler David Hendry, the 27-year-old founder of the Restored Truth podcast, died after a three-vehicle crash at the intersection of Timpanogos Highway and Morning Vista Road in Lehi at 8:25 a.m. Friday. Witnesses said Hendry ran a red light and struck two other vehicles. He was taken to a hospital, where he was pronounced dead, while the occupants of the other two vehicles were not injured.
Lehi police spokesperson Jeanteil Livingston said Hendry was the sole victim of the collision and confirmed he was not wearing a seat belt at the time of the crash, according to KSL NewsRadio. The investigation into what caused Hendry to run the light remains ongoing, Livingston said, and it is not yet known whether distraction, mechanical failure, or another factor played a role. The crash forced Lehi police to close a wide section of Timpanogos Highway, a primary east-west corridor through Utah County's Silicon Slopes area near Traverse Mountain, for nearly four hours before it reopened shortly after noon, as reported by local reporting shared on Facebook.
A Rising Voice in LDS Apologetics
Hendry, a Midway, Utah native and former full-time missionary for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, founded Restored Truth, a platform spanning YouTube, Spotify and Apple Podcasts that explored interfaith dialogue, scripture, Christian history and the restoration of the gospel, according to the show's own YouTube video. The project had made him a recognizable figure within the online LDS apologetics community, a presence underscored by his attendance at the FAIR (Faithful Answers, Informed Response) conference in Utah just days before the crash, where he networked with fellow apologists and digital creators, per the Hindustan Times.
Hendry married his wife, AnaLynn, in September 2024, and the couple lived in Meridian, Idaho, according to Soap Central. In the days since his death, an online GoFundMe campaign supporting AnaLynn and the Hendry family surpassed $50,000 in donations, and community members organized a candlelight vigil held Monday in Highland, Utah, the outlet reports.
Seat Belt Use Has Slipped Statewide
Livingston's disclosure that Hendry was unbelted lands amid a broader statewide slide in seat belt compliance. Observed seat belt use among Utah drivers fell to 89.6% in 2025 after hitting an all-time high of 92.4% in both 2023 and 2024, according to Utah Department of Public Safety data cited by KSL.com. In response, the state scheduled 335 extra law enforcement shifts in May targeting unbelted drivers, the outlet notes.
The stakes behind that push are stark. The Utah Highway Safety Office reported that 19 people died in 16 fatal crashes involving unrestrained occupants during just the first four and a half months of 2026, and officials have noted that such fatalities can occur even in low-speed collisions when occupants aren't buckled in, per the same KSL report. Over five-year tracking periods, roughly 45% of all Utah motor vehicle fatalities have involved occupants who weren't wearing seat belts, according to Swenson & Shelley Law, which cites state data showing unbelted occupants are roughly 40 times more likely to suffer fatal injuries than those who are buckled.
Intersections and Red Lights Are a Statewide Hazard
The Lehi crash also fits a familiar pattern for where Utah collisions happen. State traffic records compiled by the Utah Highway Safety Office show that 47% of all motor vehicle collisions in the state occur at intersections, with Utah recording 60,021 total crashes in 2023 and failure to yield right-of-way cited in 18% of all collisions that year. A previous nationwide AAA study ranked Utah fourth in the country for per-capita red-light running crash fatalities, tallying 112 such deaths in the state over 10 years, according to a 2019 KSL.com report.
Under Utah Code § 41-6a-1803, failing to wear a seat belt is a primary enforcement offense carrying a standard $45 fine, meaning officers can stop a vehicle solely because an occupant is unbelted, a rule in place since Utah converted to primary enforcement in May 2015, according to BeltLaws. Separately, Utah Code § 41-6a-1806 bars introducing evidence of a seat belt violation in civil court to establish comparative fault or reduce damages, meaning insurers or civil defendants cannot argue an unbuckled victim was negligent, per Swenson & Shelley Law.
Lehi police have not released additional findings on what caused Hendry to run the red light, and it remains unknown whether distraction or another factor contributed, per Livingston's statement to KSL NewsRadio. For now, Hendry is being remembered by his LDS apologetics community and online followers even as investigators continue examining the circumstances of the crash that killed him.
