One Found Deceased After Emergency Personnel Locate Vehicle Upside Down in the Trinity River
[Background image by Oliver Cory]
According to the Lost Coast Outpost, one person was located, with fatal injuries but emergency personnel on the scene were “unable to determine if any passengers were inside the vehicle at the time of the crash.”
UPDATE: Unknown Person Found Dead in Vehicle Crashed into Trinity River
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CHP map puts it at the Burnt Ranch Transfer Station. That’s a long way from Junction City… it’s closer to Willow Creek.
https://cad.chp.ca.gov/Traffic.aspx
Could have been 800 feet of suffering.
Then again, it could have been 800′ of “weeeeeee I’m flying.”
That’s tacky
Her name was Heather Earle she was my aunt have some damn respect
Could have been another murder made to look like an accident.
Another sad story from the death book of highway 299. My condolences to the victim(s) family and friends. Thank you to the emergency personal and Buddies Towing for their assistance.
It is not the road of Hwy 299; it is the way people drive it, people usually from out of the area. They think they can do 70 on the straight stretches and don’t realize there is usually a pretty good curve coming right up, hence the 55 mph speed limit is the best speed to drive. Coming home from Willow Creek this afternoon some ‘foreigner’/out of area car was on my tail the whole way except when we got to the curves and then they backed way down only to speed up on the straight stretches. It is the driver/driving that is the dangerous part of Hwy 299 or any other mountain highway for that matter.
Infrequent commenter, the highway has a great deal to do with the accidents. Blow a tire, get forced over, etc. If it was a straight highway I am sure that there would be less accidents. You can say all you want, but it is not always the drivers fault. I have lived here for 75 years, and have never had an accident on 299, 199, 36, 20, and the list goes on. I have driven in and out of Fort Seward, where I live with no problem. I drive according to the road, and “nut” corner conditions. I guess I should knock on wood!
Actually, after living on 299 for many years and now Hwy 36 for over 40 years, I can assure you that when they straighten the road certain people seem to think that just means they can go faster. There may be fewer accidents overall, but the ones there are tend to be more lethal.
Driving with caution and attentiveness to weather and road and wildlife prevents far more accidents than medical issues and mechanical issues cause.
Sigh.
Dot, at least a straight road will get rid of the nuts!
The road doesn’t cause accidents, it just sits there. Drive accordingly.
I agree, people don’t know these mountain roads if they don’t live here and it is sad, my sympathy goes to the family of the deceased person.
This is exactly why I am terrified of wearing seatbelts on our mountain roads (not the freeway as much). My grandpa and grandma crashed right by this location on the 299. grandpa wasn’t wearing his seatbelt and fell out of the car leaving him with a couple scratches. grandma was wearing her seatbelt and eventually died from her injuries. I owe thousands of dollars in seatbelt tickets because of this concern for my safety. God bless merica you have no right to have your own life experience and opinion.
Ejection from a crashing car usually doesn’t end well. Partial ejection is a great way to get mangled.
Statistically you are much, much, much safer to wear a seat belt. Much safer. Much, much, much safer. Did I overstate that? Much safer. Anecdotal stories about “grandpa” don’t carry a whole lotta weight. Also, it would appear grandpa was a terrible driver so maybe we shouldn’t be making life choices based on lessons learned from him.
Side note, “thousands of dollars” in seatbelt tickets? If a seat belt ticket is $125, and you owe multiple thousands of dollars, lets say two thousand to keep it fair for your claim, that means you’ve gotten 16 seat belt tickets in your lifetime. If this is true, I guess I respect your commitment to the cause. You of course realize that the cruel god of irony has now pretty much determined the manner in which you will die is in a car crash, no seat belt, otherwise preventable death situation, right?
🕯🌳I’ll much,much, much second that. 🖖
It’s probably the same “Guest” who thinks masks are a bad idea too…
Where did it say Grandpa was driving?
I just assumed. How many grandpas you know that would ride shotgun with granny at the wheel?
Lmao seatbelt save lives. Lmao
Lost my sister on Spy Rock; she didn’t like seatbelts either. She lost. The driver was devastated. I’ve been mourning “her choice” all day. Then I read your comment. Tomorrow is her birthday and I miss her everyday.
Don’t know if you ever heard of Helen Chenoweth. She was a libertarian/conservative politician from Idaho. One of the things she refused to do was wear a seat belt.
I’m pretty sure you all know where this is going. Yep, the vehicle she was riding in overturned and she was thrown from the vehicle and died. The miracle was that she had her baby grandson, 5 months in her lap when she was ejected from the SUV. The baby survived with minor injuries, as did the driver.
Wow you need to do some research… Talk to a CHP, an abundance tech, or firefighter… Your grandpa is in the 1% surviving being ejected from a car wreck. Also if you drive without a seatbelt your air bag might kill you in a wreck, they are designed to work together.
My older sister did not believe in seatbelts. When the car she was driving rolled she was ejected and died, my younger sister was wearing her seatbelt and lived though her arm was broken. 1968. 52 years is a long time to mourn.
Where does it say he was ejected?
Maybe he bailed out?
That’s what I was thinking …..
How would not wearing your seatbelt help an 800ft fall?
You gonna fly?
No vehicle description yet Kym?
No. Once a fatality is confirmed, officers want to make sure that the victim’s family learns from them rather than from another source so they don’t put out much info.
Some drivers are fools with 4k lb time bomb . Notice it every time on 299 etc. cops enforce the codes they get the ticket then loose license eventually. Tailgate all you want I’m not going to speed just to rush to get off the next exit. Usually they exit after they pass me which is dumb ass for sure. Seatbelts are what Paul Newman advocated in the 70s, he raced cars for a hobby and knew his shit.
Hwy 299 has been a scenic highway following a wild and scenic river along an old stagecoach route for many decades. People used to take their time, stop at local cafes and shops on route, and enjoy the ride. Now, like many once rural routes, it’s used to get as fast as people can go from origin to destination – Point A to Point B.
It’s not a highway thing. It’s not a driver thing. It’s our society and how fucked up, stressed out, and priority poor we’ve become as a people. We’re about the destination instead of the journey. The life lesson here is: slow down, stay mindful of your surroundings and enjoy the ride.
While unreported, here’s another example of similar behavior… On Friday at 5 a.m. a freight transport big rig speeding on 299 around the 25mph curve at Lime Point at the west end of Junction City rolled onto it’s side, slid across the oncoming lane and punched the top end of it’s trailer box through the guard rail. Thankfully for our post-Helena Fire community, it didn’t light up the dry grass on the hillside below. Probably because of squeeling breaks beforehand, my dogs woke me to hear the crash and skid. Thought a big tree fell on one of my outbuildings.
That driver’s hurried stupidity could have cost our homes and lives with a subsequent fire before people were out of bed. I hope the bastard loses his license.
And with all 299’s new-age blood alley problems, Humboldt County has put in 5 million dollars for CalTrans to improve 299 to allow for double trailer big rig traffic through this skinny river canyon for the transport of shipped goods from a future deep water port in Humboldt Bay?
To that, I simply say:
FUCK GREEDY URBANITES.
Squealing brakes, not breaks…
Although that could’ve been the case as well. Didn’t hear how the driver fared.
It’s the way of the nation. We used to have values and we were willing to pay for them. Now, we have greed at any cost and republicans. If there is a God, one of those fucking asteroids will hit us.
you must be suffering from the effects of stepping on a rusty nail then a pile of dog shyt.
Doc, where did it say the road was being improved so tandem big rigs could travel it. All those hugh trucks have to stop in Redding and off load what is coming to Eureka via 299 onto a smaller truck that can travel the road. I hope they never allow those tandem big rigs on 299. I sure as hell would not want to meet on on a narrow corner or anyplace else.
Martin, my understanding is secondhand without a document reference, from a source close to CalTrans several years ago before 299 improvements started. So take it for whatever it’s worth…
Word was that, in order to support eventual development of Humboldt Bay as a deepwater shipping port similar to SF Bay that would serve developing NorCal and SoOr, Humboldt County gave $5,000,000 to CalTrans to fund a feasibility study to expand 299 enough to allow tandem rigs. And since a new railway system through southern Trinity to do the same was shot down in recent years, 299 is now the only game in town.
If that’s done, like you I dread the day. Not only from the driving danger aspect, but also for the health of an already struggling Trinity River. As demonstrated in the photo above, we already have single trailer rigs, including logging and processed lumber carriers, overturning and dumping loads on 299 curves. Imagine tandem trailers, perhaps with hazardous tanks of liquid materials doing the same… into the river.
Remember the Cantara Loop spill into the Upper Sac above Shasta Lake years ago? Tragic for the fishery and the local tourist economy. Except this would be pouring poison into a struggling anadromous fishery containing ESA listed Coho salmon. Human insanity knows no bounds.
The Buckhorn realignment was primarily about letting the bigger trucks through. 299 is now open to “STAA” rigs and is the worse for it. Some of the drivers should have never left the I5 corridor. Also, the continued road work induces all sorts ofanxiety in folks and they drive too fast to make up time… and people don’t know what a turnout is or that passing lanes are there to let people pass…
“New STAA Designation on Route 299: STAA vehicles can now travel on Route 299 between US-101 and Iron Mountain Road near Redding, CA where it was previously accessible only to “California Legal” vehicles. For more information, see the Caltrans District 1 Map (PDF) and District 2 Map (PDF) .”
https://dot.ca.gov/programs/traffic-operations/legal-truck-access/eureka
Thanks for the reference and clarification, Ullr.
I always think, with our tourism supporting our economy the way it does, we should provide more signage for the curves. Big, reflective arrows, flashing speedometers… I drive that stretch back and forth often, from my workplace in Weaverville, to Collins Bar ( just past the B.R. dump) then back and forth all day drafting water and irrigating trees. I’m super familiar with that one long stretch that can trick the newbies. Caltrans is aware of the fatalities, for sure. Once a curve causes enough fatalities, then they improve the curve. Why not add some warnings, rumble strips on the yellow, etc.?