Moss Landing, CA : Two teens killed in Highway 1 collision on early Friday morning July 11th 2014
Two Santa Cruz teenagers were killed and hundreds of drivers delayed for more than six hours Friday morning after two separate accidents just a mile apart on Highway 1 in North Monterey County early Friday morning.
Under cloudy skies and a slight mist, a 15-year-old driver and her 18-year-old passenger died just before 7 a.m. Friday after the driver lost control of the white Hyundai sedan, crossed into oncoming traffic and collided head-on with a utility truck on Highway 1 between Jensen and Salinas roads. Neither were wearing a seat belt, California Highway Patrol officer Jaime Rios said.
Two minutes later, the driver of another vehicle allowed his car to veer off the road and hit a pole at the Salinas Road overpass.
Because of the fatal accident, the CHP shut down the highway between Salinas and Dolan roads. The shutdown caused traffic delays that rippled throughout Santa Cruz and Monterey counties as drivers searched for alternative routes.
At the scene of the first accident, Rios said the 15-year-old driver of the Hyundai, was ejected from the vehicle. She came to rest in the middle of the two-lane highway. She and her passenger were pronounced dead at the scene.
Debris, including a baby seat, was strewn across the road, which separates agricultural fields where farmworkers were at work.
Rios said it is unclear why the driver crossed the double-yellow line. A press release late in the day identified the ages of the teens, but did not say if the driver had a valid driving permit. The CHP did not return calls seeking comment late Friday. While it's possible that the driver had a learner's permit, California law requires that a licensed driver over 25 years old be in the vehicle.
The mangled Hyundai was nearly unrecognizable as it sat in the shrubbery on the east side of the highway. The truck, from Northwest Signs in Santa Cruz, contained two people, neither of whom suffered injuries. The truck landed in the ditch, on the west side of the highway, tipped over on its side, Rios said. A spokesman for Northwest Signs who came to the scene of the collision said the truck was likely a total loss.
Highway Patrol officials have not released the names of the two teens, pending notification of their families.
Though it was a head-on collision, the passenger side of the sedan took the brunt of the damage, Rios said. It's unclear how fast both vehicles were driving, but the speed limit in the area is 55 mph.
Minutes after the fatal collision, the driver of a Honda Prelude heading northeast on the Salinas Road offramp of Highway 1 veered off the road and struck a light pole, Rios said. The driver was transported to Watsonville Community Hospital for minor to moderate injuries, Rios said.
Rios said they closed the road for legal and safety reasons.
"Anytime somebody is pronounced dead on scene, we're not allowed to move the body until the coroner arrives," Rios said. "Once the coroner arrives, because the scene was so long and it was on both sides (of the highway), to protect the people working on the scene, we thought it would be safe to close the entire road."
Traffic was snared for hours, with cars backed up past Watsonville and Moss Landing on Highway 1. Traffic on Highway 101 was backed up for miles as drivers tried to get onto Highway 156 to get to the Monterey Peninsula. Traffic on Salinas Road, Hall Road and San Miguel Canyon Road, which connects Highway 1 to Highway 101 also was at a standstill hours after the collision. It's likely the bulk, if not all of the traffic delay, stemmed from the fatal accident, according to Rios.
Lanes in both directions of Highway 1 were opened by 1:30 p.m., Rios said.
Source :
Two teens killed in Highway 1 collision near Moss landing