By Aidan Mortensen | KOAL News | Photo courtesy of the Utah Department of Public Safety

On Thursday, July 24, at approximately 7 p.m., several lanes of traffic were closed in Spanish Fork Canyon at mile marker 187 following a fatal accident where a motorcycle collided with a car.

According to the Utah Department of Public Safety, the accident occurred when ”a 2002 Pontiac Bonneville was northbound on SR-89 approaching the junction with SR-6. The Pontiac stopped at the stop sign preparing to turn west/left. The driver failed to see a Harley-Davidson motorcycle, at a high rate of speed approaching eastbound on US-6. As the Pontiac was turning, the motorcycle struck the side of Bonneville.”

The crash threw the Harley driver approximately 150 feet and then down about 50-75 feet down an embankment. The rider sustained fatal injuries and was pronounced dead at the scene.

Since the accident, the Utah Department of Public Safety has identified the driver as Brian Ezell, a 40-year-old resident of Helper.

Ezell’s family remembers him as a man filled with love. “If he gave you a hug he showed you love. If he met you for the first time he showed you love. Brian had that light in him that drew people to him. He always listened and never judged. These are the things Brian lived by. He always wanted to be a better man, son, dad, brother, uncle, nephew, cousin and friend than he was yesterday,” reads his obituary.

Funeral services for Ezell will be held on Friday, Aug. 1, 2025, at 11 a.m. in the Notre Dame Hope Center (185 North Carbon Avenue) in Price, where the family will receive friends beginning at 9:30 a.m.