The Most Dangerous Roads in Cottonwood Heights

Each crash UDOT recorded inside Cottonwood Heights city limits was assigned to the street it happened on, using the state's road map and, where the two disagreed, the road the officer wrote in the report. Crashes on I-215 and its ramps are tallied separately below, and crashes in parking lots and other private property are left out of the ranking. Serious or fatal means the report listed a death or a suspected serious injury.

The records hold 3,140 crashes in the city over that stretch. Of those, 246 were on I-215 or a freeway ramp, 77 were on private property and 20 could not be placed on a street, which leaves 2,797 on city streets and state highways. Of these, 45 were serious or fatal, and 7 people died in 7 fatal crashes. Someone was reported hurt, including possible injuries, in 23.0% of them, against 32.1% on non-freeway roads across the seven counties in this data.

Fort Union Boulevard Carries a Quarter of the Load

Fort Union Boulevard (7000 South) had 768 crashes, 27.5% of the city's total, along with 15 of the 45 serious or fatal crashes and 3 of the 7 deaths. Its busiest junctions are 1300 East (112 crashes), Highland Drive (89) and 2300 East (72). Side-impact crashes are 40.2% of its total, above the citywide 31.5%, and an officer flagged a driver who ignored a signal or sign in 62 of them.

One pattern runs through the whole city: 300 crashes, 10.7%, happened at a driveway or business access rather than at a street intersection. That is the highest share of any of the 57 cities and well above the 6.0% seen across the region. Fort Union Boulevard, Highland Drive and Union Park Avenue together hold 1,570 of the city's crashes.

Cottonwood Heights' Crash List, Road by Road

These are the nine roads with at least 50 crashes, in order of crash count. Big Cottonwood Canyon Road (38 inside city limits) and 6200 South (25) fell short. A crash where two listed roads meet is counted once, on the road the report named.

• Fort Union Boulevard (7000 South) — 768 crashes, 15 serious or fatal, 3 deaths. Busiest junctions: 1300 East (112), Highland Drive (89) and 2300 East (72).
• Highland Drive (2000 East) — 506 crashes, 7 serious or fatal, 2 deaths. Rear-end crashes were 41.1% of the total; 74 happened at Fort Union Boulevard and 55 at Black Stone Road.
• Union Park Avenue (1000 East) — 296 crashes, 1 serious, no deaths. The report flagged a driver who left the scene in 35 (11.8%), the highest hit-and-run share on this list. 79 crashes were at 7180 South.
• Wasatch Boulevard (3500 East, SR-210) — 243 crashes, 9 serious or fatal, 1 death. Motorcycles were involved in 10 crashes, 3 of them serious, and single-vehicle crashes made up 23.9% of the total.
• 1300 East — 151 crashes, 3 serious, no deaths. All 3 serious crashes involved a motorcycle. Side-impact crashes were 47.7%; the Fort Union Boulevard junction alone had 40.
• Bengal Boulevard (7800 South) — 141 crashes, 1 serious, no deaths. A teen driver was involved in 57 of them (40.4%), the highest share on this list.
• Park Centre Drive (1450 East) — 74 crashes, 1 serious. Side-impact crashes were 62.2%, the most of any road here, and 30 were at 1300 East.
• Creek Road (8200 South) — 71 crashes, 3 serious, every one of them a single-vehicle crash. That is 4.2% of its crashes, the highest serious share among these nine roads.
• 2300 East — 51 crashes, none serious or fatal. Rear-end crashes were 33.3%, and a teen driver was involved in 18.

Together the nine roads account for 2,301 of the 2,797 street crashes (82.3%), 40 of the 45 serious or fatal crashes and 6 of the 7 deaths. The seventh death was on 6200 South (SR-190), which had only 25 crashes inside city limits.

Wasatch Boulevard and the Serious-Crash Rate

Ranked by serious or fatal crashes instead, Fort Union Boulevard still leads with 15, but Wasatch Boulevard moves up to second with 9 and Highland Drive drops to third with 7. On Wasatch, 3.7% of crashes were serious or fatal, more than twice the citywide 1.6%. Of its 9 serious crashes, 7 were in the single-vehicle group and 3 involved a motorcycle. North Little Cottonwood Road, the other piece of SR-210 in the city, had 10 crashes and 1 serious one.

Motorcycles and Bicycles in the Serious Crashes

Riders made up a small slice of all crashes but a large slice of the serious ones. Motorcycles were in 1.8% of crashes and 14 of the 45 serious or fatal ones (31.1%), sixth-highest among the 57 cities (21.7% regionally). Bicyclists were in 6 serious crashes (13.3%), second-highest of the 57 (5.4% regionally), and pedestrians in 8. More than half of the serious crashes, 27, fall in the group UDOT codes as single-vehicle or not applicable, which includes a vehicle striking a pedestrian, a cyclist or a fixed object.

Among drivers, the reports point to age more than distraction. An older driver was involved in 22.7% of crashes, sixth-highest of the 57 (14.9% regionally), and in 11 of the serious ones. Distraction was flagged in 6.8%, among the five lowest rates of the 57 (9.8% regionally). Over 2018 through 2024, January had the most crashes (270) and May the fewest (182).

I-215's Short Run Through the City

I-215 had 231 crashes inside Cottonwood Heights, 3 of them serious or fatal, and 2 people died on it. With the ramps, freeways were 7.8% of the city's crashes, against 21.4% across the seven counties. Three limits apply to every figure here: property-damage crashes under Utah's reporting threshold are not in the records, each crash counts on one road only, and the low serious-crash counts for 2018 (2) and 2019 (3) sit well below the 9 recorded in 2023, a gap the records do not explain, so this page does not read a trend into it.

Legal Basics After a Cottonwood Heights Crash

Personal injury protection on your own policy pays first, at least $3,000 in medical expenses no matter who was at fault (Utah Code § 31A-22-307). A claim against the other driver for pain and similar losses opens once the injury meets the threshold in § 31A-22-309, such as a broken bone, permanent impairment or medical bills over $3,000; that threshold does not limit an uninsured motorist claim. A driver who flees and is never found is treated as uninsured (§ 31A-22-305(2)(b)). Your recovery shrinks by your own share of fault and is barred unless the others' combined fault is greater (§ 78B-5-818). Most injury suits must be filed within four years (§ 78B-2-307), but a claim that a city or state road was unsafe needs a written notice of claim within one year (§ 63G-7-402). See our Cottonwood Heights car accident, motorcycle accident, bicycle accident and personal injury pages, plus the guides to proving fault, filing a PIP claim and Utah's filing deadlines.

Medical Bills, Wages and the Rest

• Treatment and pay: the ambulance, hospital and follow-up care, therapy, and wages lost while you recover, along with any reduced ability to earn later.
• Pain and daily life: physical pain, lost sleep, and the riding, hiking or routines you had to give up.
• What comes next: future care the injury will need, and repair or replacement of your car or bike.

Method for This Page

Crash records: UDOT's public Crash_Locations data, January 1, 2018 through August 4, 2025. City limits: UGRC's current municipal boundary for Cottonwood Heights, applied to all years. Streets: UGRC Utah Roads, each crash matched within 35 meters, with the road named in the report preferred. Serious or fatal: a report coded Fatal or Suspected Serious Injury. Regional figures cover non-freeway crashes in Salt Lake, Utah, Davis, Weber, Summit, Cache and Washington counties, and monthly figures use the complete years 2018 through 2024. Every city we have ranked this way is listed on our statewide page, Utah’s most dangerous roads.