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Inset: Utah CEO Richard Hendrickson and his daughter Sally Hendrickson (Lifetime Store/Facebook). Background: The Ogden Canyon crash scene where Richard and Sally Hendrickson died (Utah Highway Patrol).
A Utah tow-truck driver is facing a lengthy prison sentence after a tragic incident resulted in the deaths of an outdoor equipment company’s CEO and his teenage daughter. The driver, Michael John Love, failed to properly secure a bulldozer on his flatbed trailer, causing it to dislodge on a curve and fatally crush Richard Hendrickson and his 16-year-old daughter, Sally.
In court on Friday, Love expressed deep remorse, stating, “If I could take it back, I would.” As reported by local NBC affiliate KSL, he received a sentence ranging from four to 23 years for multiple charges stemming from the accident. “I think about it every single day,” Love confided to the court. “I dream about it every single night. It’s a burden I will carry for life. I made a grave mistake, and I own up to it.”
Convicted in July, Love was given one to 15 years for aggravated assault, 364 days for each negligent homicide charge, up to five years for one obstruction of justice charge, and an additional 364 days for another obstruction charge due to false statements about securing the machinery. The July 2024 accident also injured Hendrickson’s wife and two other children.
The Utah Highway Patrol detailed the crash in its report, explaining that as Love navigated a right-hand turn, the bulldozer came loose, sliding off the driver’s side. The accident took place on SR-39, a picturesque two-lane road winding through Ogden Canyon.
“The vehicle [Love was driving] was negotiating a right-hand curve when the bulldozer broke free, sliding off the driver’s side,” the Utah Highway Patrol wrote in its report on the incident. The crash happened on SR-39, a two-lane route that runs through the scenic Ogden Canyon.
“A GMC pickup was traveling westbound towing a boat,” UHP officials said, in reference to the Hendricksons. “The bulldozer landed on the GMC pickup. The adult male driver and one juvenile female passenger were pronounced dead on the scene. Two other adult passengers were transported with non-life-threatening injuries.”
Charging documents for Love outlined how he failed to secure the bulldozer in a proper and safe manner, causing the crash that day, per KSL.
“The bulldozer landed on top of the passenger compartment of the victim-vehicle, crushing and killing” the Hendricksons, according to Weber County prosecutors.
The aftermath of the crash that killed Richard and Sally Hendrickson (Utah Highway Patrol).
Love agreed to talk with investigators at Utah Highway Patrol after the crash and claimed “he never left his travel lane, and that the victim’s vehicle left the west bound lane and struck him.” He insisted that the bulldozer he was hauling was secured properly, telling investigators that he put chains at four points of contact — “two [on] the back, ‘two on the front, and ‘one over the bucket,” per the charging documents.
Love also alleged that he used a “J hook from the tow chain on the dozer and a chain over the bucket, for a total of six restraints.”
Describing what may have caused the bulldozer to topple, Love said he believed it was “too heavy” and too tall.
“It’s the height that gets you,” he told investigators, “admitting that the height of the bed on the vehicle and the weight of the dozer made it unstable,” according to prosecutors.
When emergency crews arrived at the scene, Love — owner of Love Towing out of Marriott-Slaterville, Utah — was found “moving chains” and tampering with items near the storage compartment of the flatbed. He was ordered to “leave everything where it is,” with police reporting that he placed chains where they should have been in order to keep the bulldozer in place.
Surveillance video from a gas station that Love visited showed that the bulldozer he was hauling was not properly chained down. Investigators said that after watching the footage, it was “clearly visible” that Love had been lying about everything.
“The video clearly shows that there is only one hook secured to the front of the dozer, which is the ‘winch cable’ attached and does not legally count as a secure attachment,” prosecutors charged. “On the back and middle of the dozer is a single chain to the bed of the truck.”
Authorities said “some of Michael Love’s first actions after the crash were to attempt to place more chains into the scene to indicate that [the] bulldozer was secured properly,” ultimately showing that he “knew the bulldozer was not properly secured,” according to his charging documents.
“There were simply no excuses for an individual, a licensed tow truck driver, to carry this bulldozer that was over 30,000 pounds on a metal track flatbed,” the judge told Love on Friday, according to KSL.
Richard Hendrickson, the CEO of the Utah-based company Lifetime Products, was active on social media both as a father and business leader, posting regularly about his job and family life, including his daughter.
“I miss him every day,” said Richard Hendrickson’s wife, Julie Hendrickson, at Love’s sentencing. “We had so many plans to do so much together.”