CHP Identifies Decedent of Last Week’s Willits Bypass Head-On Collision as Beloved Oregon Coast Bus Driver

Michael Lee Confer

Michael Lee Confer

In the early morning of Thursday, May 13, 2021, Crescent City man Michael Lee Confer purportedly drove his Pontiac head-on into a motorcycle on the Willits Bypass section of Highway 101. The collision resulted in the death of the motorcyclist. The driver has been identified as Wayne Berry of Gold Beach, Oregon by the California Highway Patrol Garberville Office.

A Facebook post from the Central Curry County School District mourned the loss of Berry describing him as a loyal employee who “will be remembered for his care for all students and staff with a special heart for the underdog.”

A press release from the CHP Garberville Office alleges at approximately 2:55 a.m. Confer was driving northbound while Berry was driving south on the Willits Bypass section of Highway 101. For reasons yet to be determined, the CHP press release states, “Confer allowed his Pontiac to travel over the yellow painted lines… directly into the path of the motorcycle.” 

As per the press release, the collision caused Berry and his motorcycle to be propelled over the side of the roadway “where they came to rest below.” Berry succumbed to his injuries at the scene.

After Confer’s Pontiac Grand Prix struck the motorcycle, the press release reports the vehicle ignited and caught on fire. The collision resulted in Highway 101 being shut down for two hours.

Confer is booked inside the Mendocino County Jail accused of gross vehicular manslaughter while intoxicated and DUI causing bodily injuries, both felonies. 

The Facebook post from the Central Curry School District said Berry had been working recently as a bus driver and an “athletic trip driver.”

Earlier:

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31 Comments
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CB
Guest
CB
2 years ago

Unfortunately the first of many on that stretch of road. Should have been a divided highway. Condolences to the family.

Just Sayin
Guest
Just Sayin
2 years ago
Reply to  CB

Yeah, that would have happened on over passes…. Here’s an idea that’s much better, PEOPLE DRIVE SOBER! Really not that difficult and it is a whole lot less expensive the the nanny shit you people always want to pull. Have some accountability and act like an adult! Why do you idiots feel the need to blame a road when the driver did everything wrong….. Just think about it, I know this is california and critical thinking is at an all time low, but just maybe!

Cory
Guest
Cory
2 years ago
Reply to  Just Sayin

Amen! You can’t pick up a clean end of a turd!

UnflappableJack
Guest
UnflappableJack
2 years ago
Reply to  CB

It would of been but for the green weenies.

Xebeche
Guest
Xebeche
2 years ago

Ridiculous

UnflappableJack
Guest
UnflappableJack
2 years ago
Reply to  Xebeche

Wrong again, the original plan was four lanes. The weenies, through meritless law suits and trespassing, stalled the project until the state gave up.

dgale
Guest
dgale
2 years ago
Reply to  CB

No, the road is fine…this asshole just needed to not drive while intoxicated, cross over the double yellow and kill an innocent person.

Linda Patton
Guest
Linda Patton
2 years ago
Reply to  CB

And of course the driver of car being DRUNK doesn’t factor in at all!!!

Guest
Guest
Guest
2 years ago

An accident there averages one every 46 days, 8 in the last year.

Last year at this time there were 3 in a 20 day period.

Something can hopefully be done to make the area safer before there is another unnecessary accident there.

Huh?
Guest
Huh?
2 years ago
Reply to  Guest

Your wording implies that there are necessary accidents?

Guest
Guest
Guest
2 years ago
Reply to  Huh?

Huh? ,

Not necessarily.

Your splitting hairs, To suggest I imply there are necessary accidents, because I assert that there are such things as unnecessary accidents, is using fuzzy logic.

I guess in order to improve the meaning I was trying to convey, I could have used the word, “preventable”, or maybe, “predictable”, instead of the word,
” unnecessary”.

But because I have been advocating for a retrofit in this area for a year,
this has gone from a “preventable”, “predictable”, death, to an “unnecessary” death.

So, yeah, let’s call it a predictable, preventable, death, an additional descriptor being, therefore, unnecessary. That works for me.

They also should no longer be called accidents.

It’s a setup now.

Any other victims there are being set up.

Can you find any other glaring errors of mine?

There are Karens.

Then, there are Shirleys.

Huh?,

You missed the jist.

Somebody’s number is already up, and the clock is ticking.

It should come as no surprise, when the next ticket gets punched there.

It will be no accident.

It will be due to flaws in engineering.

It’s now an integral part of the design.

Whoever successfully redesigns that area will be a hero, a true lifesaver.

To overlook the problem, will be negligent.

Brodie
Guest
Brodie
2 years ago
Reply to  Guest

You are missing the point. People drive thru there all the time and stay in their lane with out a problem. Probably tens of thousands do it, the only way not to is to do something wrong. It is driver error.

Pike Mortar
Guest
Pike Mortar
2 years ago

65 mph speed limit on an elevated two lane funnel with no median and bumpers on each side seems inappropriate.

Norman
Guest
Norman
2 years ago
Reply to  Pike Mortar

Speed limit is 55 once you hit the 2 lane section. The majority of 2 lane freeways are 55mph speed limits

Pike Mortar
Guest
Pike Mortar
2 years ago
Reply to  Norman

The bypass bridge is 65

Patriot in Willits
Guest
Patriot in Willits
2 years ago
Reply to  Pike Mortar

Guest is right. 55 for most of the bypass bridge, 65 after it widens up on the south end.

W
Guest
W
2 years ago

It’s 65 till you get past the north Willits exit. When it first opened it was 55 going north but 65 going south or vise versa. I remember calling CHP to advise them of this.
I don’t understand why they didn’t make an exit at the hospital as opposed to having to go back into town. Having to do this is a waste of valuable time that could save lives.
So yeah this stretch of road was not planned out very well.

Littlefoot
Guest
Littlefoot
2 years ago

There is clearly a 65 sign at the beginning of the bridge heading south, along with multiple “55 when towing” signs, which back up the fact that it is 65 for everyone who is not towing.

Guest
Guest
Guest
2 years ago
Reply to  Littlefoot

Littlefoot,

Is the 65 mph sign before or after the last on ramp that u-turns on to the bridge?

That also would suggest 2 southbound lanes developing… to the subconscious mind.

That’s what it means everywhere else…

Begin freeway.
Two lanes in your direction…

Then comes the extra on ramp lane, to complete the illusion…and then it quickly closes out, as the greenhorn capitalizes on what he see as a legitimate opportunity to pass in what appears to be the number one of two southbound lanes.
It all happens so quickly, as the driver is accelerating to achieve 65 mph.

Damn, a perfect storm of events and whammo, second verse same as the first, etc., etc., etc.

Guest
Guest
Guest
2 years ago
Reply to  Pike Mortar

Two way funnel I might add.

Pretty apt description, Pike Mortar.

What could go wrong?

Max C Fletcher
Guest
Max C Fletcher
2 years ago

Perfect design for head-on collisions. Time for a median divider at that location before more lives are taken.

Bushytails
Guest
Bushytails
2 years ago

Why are people complaining about the design of the highway, and ignoring that the accident was caused by some piece of shit who most likely drunk and drove? The highway didn’t cause the accident. The speed limit didn’t cause the accident. Someone making the decision to utterly disregard the safety of other (well, if you can call him one) human beings, and get in a vehicle after consuming alcohol and/or drugs, caused the accident. DUI is the number one cause of fatal accidents, by a huge margin (80% according to the Journal’s research), and this isn’t going to change until we stop treating drunk driving as culturally acceptable.

Pike Mortar
Guest
Pike Mortar
2 years ago
Reply to  Bushytails

Oh for sure, he’s a piece of shit. I personally was responding to another post about the highway having a high number of crashes. Not all were DUI.

Melissa gilbert
Guest
Melissa gilbert
2 years ago
Reply to  Pike Mortar

Not a piece of shit. Shame on you. He was not drunk not high and that’s according to his breathalyzer, urinalysis, and blood draw. I hope nothing like this ever happens to you so you don’t have to hear people who are clueless to the situation talking bad about you.

Guest
Guest
Guest
2 years ago
Reply to  Bushytails

Dangerous design, Bushytails, dangerous design.

There were 8 accidents in that location in 50 weeks.

That’s one, on average, every 44 days.

That’s not normal, Bushytails, they weren’t all DUI’s.

Most were multi vehicle.

I don’t understand people’s thinking that say the highway didn’t cause the accident.

What I’m saying is the design is contributing to a concentration problem.

A lack of concentration due to something a common as fatigue, is obviously causing a concentration of accidents at that approach.

You assume a man was guilty of DUI.
That may be libelous and slanderous, and is presently purely speculative.

However, if true, and I emphasize, if, would you still advocate for a roadway design that represents a sobriety test where failure means a traffic collision with innocent victims?

And please consider, that regardless of DUI status, that does not assure that the DUI driver was at fault.

In my experience, on that approach, it is more likely that south bound traffic will move into the northbound lane.

With a vehicle approaching and nowhere for either to go, both could steer into the southbound lane causing the collision to occur there.

Trust me, depending on where exactly the accident occurred, there are way less reasons a northbound driver would initially leave his lane, and way more possibilities that a southbound driver would go into the northbound lane.

That also makes DUI southbound in that area more dangerous than DUI northbound in the same area.

There are way more potential mistakes to be made southbound.

It’s all about situational awareness and southbound it’s way trickier, especially the first time through.

I make no claims to who was at fault, I will blame neither of them, my scenarios are hypothetical based on my experiences there, and the other many events, and my conclusion is that most certainly that area is an accident waiting to happen, and it should be corrected before anyone else falls victim to it.

If it is not immediately addressed,
it may be just a matter of days before something similar occurs.

May the Rider Rest in Peace.

For nearly a year, I have been trying to bring attention to the fact that this area needs to be reconfigured.

That was seven accidents ago.

I’m not sure how many lives.

What a helpless feeling that nobody
takes me seriously.

Imagine the feeling if and when it happens again.

Uggh!

That means most likely by the 4th of July.

This isn’t just about alcohol, unless whoever designed that area had been drinking as well.

Please fix it.

It may have been the motorcyclist first time over the bypass.

He was from Oregon.

He may have been tired.

The first time through the bypass is the trickiest.

WR HEARST
Guest
WR HEARST
2 years ago
Reply to  Guest

EDIT PLEASE , THANK YOU , THE EDITOR , WR HEARST

UnflappableJack
Guest
UnflappableJack
2 years ago
Reply to  Bushytails

Yikes, we agree on something.

Mendocino Mamma
Guest
Mendocino Mamma
2 years ago

Put up the K wall from the first exit to the last. Have idiots flipping U turns, passing on double yellows, drifting over the lines EVERYDAY. PLEASE end this madness CALTRANS, PHIL, enough is enough???

Crimestopper2
Guest
Crimestopper2
2 years ago

speed and design are useless topics here. Confer could have been driving 40mph and STILL have killed the motorcyclist.The idiot was drunk and ran into the motorcyclist and killed him. Confer will never drive bus again and will have to face all the criminal charges plus $10k dui fees. He’s screwed for life!!

Angela Robinson
Guest
Angela Robinson
2 years ago
Reply to  Crimestopper2

The late Mr. Berry was the bus driver, unless I read that completely wrong.

Melissa gilbert
Guest
Melissa gilbert
2 years ago

Actually this is my friend and he was it drunk nor was he high as per the breathalyzer, urinalysis, and the blood draw!! It was a terrible accident and someone lost their life, which is very tragic but for all of you running around saying my friend is a piece of shit who likes to get high/drunk and run around killing people get a life, better yet get some facts. It very much has to do with the design of the road, which is what led to this accident in the first place!! And thank you to anyone who understands that people make mistakes and aren’t so quick to judge and talk bad about a situation they know nothing about.