Traditionally, the July 4th holiday is the deadliest on Utah roads. The weekend lived up to its billing this year, leaving at least eight people dead.
The night of July 4th, on Interstate 80, about 30 miles east of Wendover an alleged drunken driver steered his Dodge pickup eastbound in the westbound lanes of traffic and collided head on with a chevy suburban. This killed three members of a family, and seriously injured another.
Sunday afternoon, two vehicles collided on State Route 191 north of Monticello, killing five and putting two others in critical condition.
Also on Sunday, traffic was backed up for hours in the Virgin River Gorge and I-15 was closed for a time near Fillmore. No fatalities were reported in either incident.