Examining 2025 traffic fatalities in Utah County, statewide
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- Vehicles travel on Interstate 15 on Friday, Jan. 9, 2025, in Springville.
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- Vehicles travel on Interstate 15 on Friday, Jan. 9, 2025, in Springville.
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- Vehicles travel on Interstate 15 on Friday, Jan. 9, 2025, in Springville.
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- Vehicles travel on Interstate 15 on Friday, Jan. 9, 2025, in Springville.
Traffic fatalities were down in 2025 on a statewide and county level, but there were concerning trends involving motorcyclists and teen drivers.
According to preliminary data released by the Utah Department of Transportation and the Department of Public Safety, 264 people were killed on Utah roads in 2025, down from 277 fatalities in 2024 and the lowest mark since 248 deaths in 2019.
In Utah County, there were 28 deaths, a slight decrease from 32 deaths in 2024.
“Even though the trend has been going slightly down with our fatalities, there’s still way too many people that are dying,” said Wyatt Woolley, a spokesman for UDOT Region 3, which covers Utah County.
Teen driving fatalities sharply rose from 18 to 31 across all Utah roads in 2025. Teen drivers led total crashes among age demographics within Utah County by a wide margin, accounting for 3,044 of 10,237 crashes, or 27%, for the year.
Motorcycle deaths went up from 53 to 70 statewide, and there were 247 motorcycle-related crashes in Utah County, with 10 resulting in fatalities, according to Jason Mettman of the Utah Department of Public Safety.
Woolley said fatalities on Utah roads have become commonplace and emphasized the need to follow safety measures. Those include following the speed limit, wearing seat belts and not driving under the influence. He added that distracted driving involving phones is a major concern.
“I see it constantly. People are on their phones, texting, YouTubing, TikTok,” he said. “And you really need to put all your focus and pay attention to driving your vehicle.”
Whether using a phone while driving directly correlates with last year’s rise in teen deaths is unclear. However, state data said 152 serious injuries or deaths were caused by distracted driving, a figure that trails speeding, which caused 483 serious injuries or deaths, and unrestrained driving, which caused 186.
Lt. Cameron Roden of the Utah Highway Patrol said a reason for teen deaths is a lack of experience behind the wheel and said parents need to set driving rules with their children.
“Discussing what’s acceptable behavior and what’s not,” Roden said. “Setting up guidelines and rules for teens to be able to drive.”
He added that this year’s teen deaths and motorcycle deaths may be related, because many young people ride motorcycles.
Those motorcycle crashes are split into two categories, single-vehicle crashes and multivehicle crashes, and both are seen frequently, Roden said.
“Where no other vehicle is involved, a lot of that is the individual didn’t have the experience on a bike and lost control and ended up crashing, or they were riding in areas where they lost control, like canyon roadways,” he said.
Roden added that many multivehicle crashes involving a motorcycle occur at intersections. In Utah County, 49% of all crashes occurred at intersections.
“We have a lot of crashes with people misperceiving the speed, size and proximity of a motorcycle at an intersection, where they turn left in front of them, or that tends to be some of our problems in those areas,” Roden said.
Another reason for increased motorcycle deaths is warmer weather, which has led to an extended riding season, he said.
As fatalities continue to be a major issue on Utah roads, state agencies have changed the language regarding traffic incidents from “accidents” to “crashes.”
This is because 96% of fatalities on state roads are behavior-related and not accidents, according to Woolley.
“In other words, they’re speeding, drunk driving, distracted driving,” he said. “They’re doing something that they kind of made a choice, that if they had chosen to do the right thing, then it probably wouldn’t have happened to begin with.”
Roden challenged drivers to make a resolution in 2026 to take responsibility for their driving behaviors.
“If we have a tendency to have a lead foot, let’s set our personal goals to reduce our speed this year,” Roden said. “If we struggle wearing our seat belt, make the goal of wearing that seat belt more often. Even just driving more calmly, something like that, where we tend to get irritated or frustrated with other drivers. Let’s look at ourselves and just try to make sure we’re making the adjustments. And if everybody started that way to be a better driver, you would notice an immediate difference on our roadways.”
