Tacoma man who died after driving off overpass remembered as outgoing family man
The man who died Monday in a fatal car crash off a Tacoma overpass has been identified as Brian Arnold Emmons. His daughter remembered him Wednesday as an outgoing family man who was always there when someone needed a friend.
Emmons, 58, drove through the barrier of the Portland Avenue overpass near Cleveland Way and plunged to the ground, where his pickup caught fire. His cause and manner of death remain pending, according to the Pierce County Medical Examiner Office’s public portal.
In a phone call, Emmons’ only child, Hailey Emmons, said it was not yet confirmed, but it was likely her father had a medical emergency. She said he struggled with diabetes and had a bad episode less than 24 hours before the crash.
Hailey Emmons, 30, lives in Arizona. She said she was sleeping when she received an iPhone crash alert at the time of the incident. She called one of her father’s cousins who he had been living with in Tacoma, and he went to the scene. The police were already there.
Brian Emmons grew up in Tacoma and moved to Texas with his daughter in 2021. Hailey Emmons said her father moved back to Tacoma a few months ago to be home again. A photo she shared showed him celebrating his birthday in March at his mother’s home in Stanwood.
“I just want it very well known how much of a family man he was,” Hailey Emmons said. “And how much he really loved his family. That’s all he ever really wanted people to know.”
The man worked as a welder for 30 years, according to Hailey Emmons. She said he had recently stopped doing that work because of the strain of working with heavy equipment at his age, and he took a job at Domino’s Pizza.
He loved soccer. In a 2022 post to Facebook, Brian Emmons wrote that when he was younger he could usually be found with a soccer ball at his feet at Manitou Park in South Tacoma. He said his two favorite people in his life growing up were his great grandmother and his great aunt. He said they lived two blocks from him in opposite directions.
“I was spoiled in every way possible by those two women!” Brian Emmons wrote. “I had other aunts, uncles, cousins ... and family friends living in and around every direction of our neighborhood!”
Another love was motorcycles.
“He was a walking billboard for Harley-Davidson,” Hailey Emmons said.
Hailey Emmons said her father was a good singer who at one point loved karaoke. “Before he said he got bad at it,” she said. Hailey Emmons said she likes to sing, and she thinks she got those talents from him.
“He’s always been, you know, the center of attention in the room, and that’s just the most I can say about him,” Hailey Emmons said.
