A 63 year old woman from Oakley, Marla Lou Harris has died following a head-on collision in Browns Canyon this morning. A second driver is in critical condition.
Summit County Lt. Andrew Wright says the accident happened at about 8:45 Thursday morning and is still under investigation. He gave the details that they know at this point.
“When deputies arrived, they saw that there were 2 vehicles involved,” said Lt. Wright. Again, it was a head on crash. It appears that a 2012 Toyota Camry was traveling westbound on Browns Canyon Road and veered into the eastbound traffic lane hitting a 2008 Toyota Highlander. When deputies made contact, the driver which we've identified as a 63 year old female of Oakley, Utah, had died in the crash. The driver of the Toyota Highlander has been identified as a 31 year old male of Peoa, Utah. He received critical injuries and was transported to a Salt Lake area hospital. At this time, we don't know what the cause of the crash was. That will all be part of the investigation to figure out how and why this happened.”
Much of Browns Canyon is a one lane road in each direction. The crash occurred about a mile in from State Route 32 - in one of the narrowest spots of the canyon – where Wright said there’s not a lot of room for driver error.
“It's east of the rock quarry so - if you turn off of State Route 32 in Peoa and head toward Park City on Browns Canyon Road, it was about a mile off of State Route 32 toward Park City,” Wright said. So, it's kind of a little narrow canyon area right there prior to getting to that rock quarry.”
At this point, authorities don’t know if wildlife was involved – the place of the crash is an area where deer can often be found feeding.
