Passenger gets out of truck just before alleged drunk driver plows into it in Modesto
A suspected drunk driver plowed into the back of a pickup truck in south Modesto on Tuesday night, the front of his car protruding nearly three feet into the left rear passenger seat of the pickup.
Just seconds before the crash, the man who’d been sitting in that seat got out of the vehicle, very likely saving his life.
“I don’t think he would have survived that crash,” said California Highway Patrol Officer Tom Olsen. “At the very least, he would have been seriously injured.”
The crash occurred at 5:38 p.m. on South Ninth Street just north of Wisenor Avenue.
The passenger had been in a Dodge Ram with a two-axle flatbed trailer that was pulled over and legally parked on the east shoulder in front of an auto wrecking business.
Olsen said the man got out to do business at the auto wreckers. About 30 seconds later, the driver of a Honda Accord veered to the right, off the northbound lane of Ninth Street. The car traveled up the flatbed attached to the Dodge and crashed through its back window.
The trailer, designed for transporting vehicles, rides low to the ground, Olsen said. He does not know how fast the Honda was going, but “If you hit it at enough speed, you can propel yourself up there.”
Photos of the crash show the front of the Honda inside the cab where the passenger’s head and upper body would have been.
Olsen said there still were three people sitting in the parked Dodge at the time of the collision: the driver, a front seat passenger and a right rear passenger. He said all of them suffered cuts to their faces and other minor injuries but declined to be taken to hospitals.
The driver of the Honda, 58-year-old Gonzalo Bustamante-Ruiz of Modesto, was arrested on suspicion of felony drunk driving.
The CHPs 78-hour maximum enforcement period for Christmas begins at 6:01 p.m. Friday and ends at 11:59 p.m. Sunday. During that period, all available CHP units will be on patrol looking for impaired drivers and other dangerous driving violations.
Olsen said the New Year holiday maximum enforcement period will run during the same times the following weekend.
This story was originally published December 22, 2021 at 2:27 PM.
