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 tow-truck driver in Utah is headed to prison for killing a CEO of an outdoor equipment company and his 16-year-old daughter after failing to safely secure a bulldozer he was hauling on a flatbed trailer, which rolled over while he was going around a curve and crushed the pair to death.
"If I could take it back, I would," said the trucker, Michael John Love, in court on Friday as he was sentenced to a total of four to 23 years in prison for various charges related to the crash that killed Richard Hendrickson and his daughter Sally Hendrickson, according to local NBC affiliate KSL.
"I think about it every single day," Love told the court. "I dream about it every single night. It's something that I'm going to have to live with for the rest of my life. I screwed up. I admit it."
Love, who was found guilty in July, was sentenced to one to 15 years in prison for an aggravated assault charge; 364 days each for two negligent homicide charges; up to five years for one count of obstruction of justice; and 364 days for another count of obstruction of justice for lying about how he secured the bulldozer that killed the father-daughter pair in July 2024. Hendrickson's wife and two other children were injured.
"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."