LIMESTONE – A Phish concert organizer died early Tuesday when his car slammed into an embankment as he was returning to his motel.

James Willox, 43, of Dedham, Mass., was returning to the Crown Park Inn in Caribou after working late setting up for the weekend band concert at Loring Commerce Centre, according to Maine Public Safety spokesman Stephen McCausland.

At 2 a.m. Tuesday, Willox’s 2002 Mazda drifted from the road and hit an embankment at the intersection of Route 189 and the West Gate Road in Limestone.

The crash occurred six miles from Loring, McCausland said.

Willox has been in northern Maine since the beginning of July helping to organize this year’s concert for the band Phish, expected to draw about 60,000 fans for three days this weekend.

The organizer had been affiliated with Phish concert events since 1996 and worked on both Phish concerts in 1997 and 1998 at Limestone, according to Dave Werlin of Great Northeast Productions.

“This is the tragic loss of a colleague and friend,” Werlin said Tuesday during a telephone interview. “Phish members and those at Northeast extend their deepest sympathies to the Willox family.”

Willox wasn’t wearing a seat belt at the time of the accident.

Limestone police Sgt. Theresa Howard attributed the cause of the accident to driver fatigue and speed. Maine State Police troopers assisted Limestone police at the accident.

State Trooper Robert Flynn is reconstructing the crash, according to police officials.

Willox is the first Phish concert organizer to die in a car accident leading up to a Phish concert weekend at the Loring site.

In 1997, the first year that Phish came to Maine, Jonathan E. Manley and Ruth A. Bond of Burlington, Vt., were killed on their way home from the concert when their car drifted into oncoming traffic in Farmington.

Drugs, including marijuana, hashish and LSD, were found in the wreckage of the car crash.

During the 1998 Phish concert weekend, a Massachusetts teenager and a Pennsylvania teenager died in vehicle-related accidents.

About 17 other people were sent to area hospitals as the result of vehicle accidents related to the Phish concert in 1998.