Third man killed in Stanislaus crashes in as many days, CHP reports
Early Monday, a 41-year-old Modesto resident became the third man killed in Stanislaus County traffic collisions in as many days, according to the California Highway Patrol.
Reports of Monday’s crash were made about 2:50 a.m. A man identified by the Coroner’s Office as David Lawson was walking across the northbound lanes of Highway 99 north of Sierra Drive, which itself is north of Tuolumne Boulevard, the CHP reported.
Lawson was struck by an unknown vehicle that continued on its way, CHP spokesman Officer Thomas Olsen said. He remained in the roadway and a short time later was struck by a 1998 Ford Mustang driven by a Healdsburg resident, who then lost control of the car and struck the center divide but was unhurt, Olsen said.
The officer said the driver of the initial vehicle, type unknown, is being sought. The vehicle should have front-end damage, he said.
Anyone with information on the crash is asked to call the CHP Modesto office at 209-545-7440 or, after hours, the Highway Patrol’s 24-hour nonemergency Merced communications center at 209-356-2900.
The first of the fatal crashes was about 6:30 p.m. Saturday on Crows Landing Road just north of Ehrlich Road. A Gilroy resident identified as Eric Lynn Ollis, 62, was driving south on Crows Landing in a 1998 GMC pickup towing a one-axle trailer. He was approaching a northbound 2015 Volvo semi hauling a refrigerated trailer that contained 30,000 pounds of lettuce.
The GMC drifted into the northbound lane, colliding with the tractor-trailer. The Volvo’s driver, 39-year-old Baljit Singh Mann of Modesto, tried to avoid the crash by turning. After the impact, his truck went off the edge of the road and came to rest in a cornfield.
Mann was uninjured, Olsen said. Ollis, who was not wearing his seat belt, was partially ejected from his pickup and was pronounced dead at the scene.
Sunday’s crash was about 10:50 a.m. on Milton Road north of Dunton Road, about four miles north of Woodward Reservoir.
Maurice Allen Jr. 64, of Patterson was riding a 2008 Harley-Davidson motorcycle north on Milton when he lost control and went off the west side of the road. The motorcycle went down a grassy embankment and struck a barbed-wire fence, ejecting Allen.
A Modesto Fire Department incident summary said emergency responders arrived to find a fellow rider performing CPR. Crews took over, trying to revive Allen for 40 minutes. “Unfortunately, the patient’s injuries were too severe,” the incident summary says, and he was pronounced dead at the scene.
This story was originally published August 10, 2020 at 10:02 AM.
