A passenger car slammed into the back of a semi-truck just after 6 p.m. Wednesday on Interstate 84 in Morgan County, where traffic had backed up because of ongoing construction. The car was extensively damaged, and emergency crews had to pull out heavy rescue tools to extricate one victim, who was rushed to the hospital with life-threatening injuries.
The crash was reported by the Mountain Green Fire Protection District, according to KUTV, which first detailed the extrication effort. Morgan Fire & EMS and Ogden Paramedics transported the victim to a local-area hospital, though officials did not release the person's identity. The same crash was also reported by KJZZ.
Fire officials said this wasn't the only wreck tied to the construction zone that evening — other crashes had occurred in the area, though those were described as not as serious as Wednesday's collision. The incident adds to a string of recent crashes along this stretch of freeway as crews work through a multi-year highway project.
Officials Push Drivers To Slow Down And Expect New Backups
Mountain Green Fire officials urged drivers to use caution in both directions when approaching the construction, warning that backups could now appear in spots where they haven't historically formed, such as Old Highway. The message from responders was simple: slow down before reaching the work zone, since congestion patterns have shifted as the project progresses.
The I-84 construction in the area is expected to continue until at least 2028, per the same account from fire officials. Separately, UDOT project information posted to its public input site describes westbound I-84 being reduced to one lane at all times for bridge work, with finishing touches and inspections slated for completion by Fall 2027 — a timeline that doesn't line up neatly with the 2028 estimate fire officials gave, and the dossier does not resolve which projection applies to this particular stretch.
Not The First Serious Wreck Near Mountain Green
This is far from the first time this corridor has turned dangerous. Back on May 29, two separate crashes happened within three miles of each other in about ten minutes, according to ABC4. In one of those incidents, a driver on westbound I-84 reportedly struck a rock escarpment near a power plant at freeway speed and was taken to the hospital with life-threatening injuries, while a rollover involving a pickup truck and a travel trailer near mile marker 93 left no injuries.
A separate report from Fox 13 similarly described two crashes within three miles of one another near Mountain Green, noting that in one case a driver was trapped and had to be extricated by Weber Fire District. Taken together, the pattern underscores why fire officials keep repeating the same warning to motorists: slow down, expect the unexpected, and don't assume backups will form where they used to.
No further details on the Wednesday victim's condition or identity have been released, and officials have not said what led the passenger car to strike the semi-truck. Drivers traveling through Morgan County should anticipate continued slowdowns as the bridge and highway work moves forward.
