Rollover crash kills 16-year-old out with friends in Utah. ‘Broke our heart’

Jonathan Fudim knew his son was capable of great kindness, but he never realized how many lives the teen had touched until the 16-year-old lost his own.

“You don’t know everybody that your children come in contact with, you’re never going to know everybody, but these kids are showing up and they’re telling us things,” he told KSTU.

“Telling us things about our son that we knew he was capable of and we knew he did for others, but the scope of how much he did for others we had no idea,” Fudim said.

GIdeon Fudim of Spanish Fork died Saturday, March 18, in a one-vehicle crash in Juab County, KSL reported.

A vehicle with four teens inside rolled over at 11 a.m. after taking a curve at high speed, the Juab County Sheriff’s Office said in a news release.

Three teens were ejected in the crash, the release said. Two were airlifted to a hospital in critical condition, including Gideon, who died of his injuries.

The other two suffered minor injuries, the release said. All four teens are from Spanish Fork.

“The loss is too great. The sorrow is too great. The pain seems to just go on and on,” Jonathan Fudim told KSTU.

Gideon attended Spanish Fork High School.

“Our thoughts and prayers are with the family,” Lana Hiskey with the Nebo School District told KTVX. “At this time, we also have another student in critical condition from the accident. We are praying for a full recovery.”

The school is providing crisis counseling for students, Hiskey said.

Stacy Andersen, owner of a 7-Eleven store in Spanish Fork that Gideon used to visit, hung a sign in his honor, KSL reported.

“Gideon is the same age as my daughter, and we became friends,” Anderson told KSTU. “(I) was able to talk and see him grow up, and it broke our heart when we found out he was gone.”

Spanish Fork is a city of 44,000 people about 50 miles south of Salt Lake City.

This story was originally published March 21, 2023 at 3:28 PM with the headline "Rollover crash kills 16-year-old out with friends in Utah. ‘Broke our heart’."