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UDOT admits it was at fault in backyard artillery accident
Michael Rigert DAILY HERALD
The Utah Department of Transportation said it was most definitely at fault when an artillery round that easily could have killed several people landed in a Pleasant Grove family's back yard Wednesday afternoon. The round was meant for avalanche control in Provo Canyon.
Tom Hudachko, a Utah Department of Transportation spokesman, said crews were conducting
avalanche control with the cannon in the vicinity of Slide Canyon and Lost Creek when the 105 mm howitzer projectile was launched over the mountainside. A total of eight rounds were fired by a gunner team, and it initially appeared the final round was a dud.
"We fired an errant shot that missed (its target) ... the shell was loaded with too much gunpowder that caused it to overshoot the target," he said. "We take full responsibility for the incident."
Pleasant Grove police officers and firefighters were on the scene within moments of several residents calling 911. Residents were temporarily evacuated and streets blocked off while FBI and ATF agents along with the Utah County Sheriff's Department bomb squad were brought in to investigate.
Pleasant Grove Police Lt. Jim Taufer said investigators found shrapnel all around the site of impact, a ring that fits on the shell, and a detonation device. He said ordnance experts determined it was not a pipe bomb, an early theory, but instead a military-grade artillery round.
"Residents described it as a whistling noise, then an explosion," Taufer said, "an incoming missile."
Though the round was intended to travel only 3,000 to 4,000 yards, it instead touched down some 9,000 yards away in Pleasant Grove's foothills. Hudachko said the howitzer was accurately sighted in and ranged for the intended target. There was simply too much powder in the shell when it was fired.
Hudachko said UDOT routinely leases the artillery cannons and purchases rounds from the U.S. Army for the purpose of avalanche control. Though designed as a military weapon, the cannons also are a highly effective way of preventing avalanches by bringing down large accumulations of snow before they cause a deadly slide.
UDOT routinely conducts avalanche control operations in Little and Big Cottonwood canyons in Salt Lake County and Provo Canyon in Utah County.
He said nothing like this has happened before with UDOT.
"We've been doing this for 22 years, and this is the first incident," Hudachko said.
The howitzer rounds come prepackaged from the military with seven charges or bags of gunpowder.
Hudachko said UDOT technicians only should have put five bags of power in the final round, but instead it was fired from the cannon with all seven bags.
"When it was fired with all seven, it caused the trajectory and range to change," he said.
Hudachko said initial indications were the potentially deadly cannon overshoot was the result of human error.
He said the two gunners on the mountain Wednesday are highly trained in operating the howitzer for avalanche control and have a combined 31 years experience between them.
UDOT has launched an internal investigation of the incident. It is expected to last several days, though no disciplinary action has been taken.
Two UDOT gunners were contacted by the Daily Herald about the incident but deferred all comments back to UDOT.
Hudachko said UDOT reacted quickly to the incident once it was determined the round had overshot the target and landed in a neighborhood.
The agency's executive director, John Njord, visited the Connor family, whose back yard was hit by the round, and their neighbors at 10 a.m. Thursday.
"His top priority was to talk to the homeowners and offer any hope we could," Hudachko said. "We want to reimburse them for any home and vehicle damage."
UDOT risk management teams were at the Connors on Thursday surveying damage in the neighborhood.
Hudachko said 51 105 mm howitzer rounds have been fired in Provo Canyon for avalanche control this season. The department has used a total of 550 rounds in four canyons this year, most of which were used in Little Cottonwood Canyon.
Avalanche control using the howitzers in Provo Canyon has been indefinitely suspended pending the results of investigation.
Scott Connor said he's not upset with UDOT about the accident and understands agency officials are doing everything they can to make sure it never happens again.
"It's obviously a freak accident," he said. "UDOT has been very responsive and very caring. I'm just more thankful that no one was hurt."
The Connors' neighbor, Laura Belnap, said the state has done a good job with taking responsibility for the accident and asking what it could do to make things right.
"It's not everyday a howitzer round lands in your neighbor's back yard," she said.
This story appeared in The Daily Herald on page A1.
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