Two badly hurt in crash off side of Turlock overpass and onto Highway 99
Two people suffered serious but not life-threatening injuries in a three-vehicle crash on Highway 99 in Turlock on Thursday morning, according to the Police Department.
Shortly before 8 a.m., police got reports of the crash, department spokesman Sgt. Michael Parmley said. The investigation shows that a tan or beige SUV was traveling north on North Walnut Road, west of the freeway when it rounded a right-hand curve onto West Canal Drive and approached the Highway 99 overpass.
For undetermined reasons, before it got to the railing on the overpass, it went off the north side and “flew down and hit the fence on the west side” of the highway, Parmley said. The SUV, occupied by its driver and a passenger, came to rest in the No. 3 southbound lane where it was struck by a big rig.
The impact sent the SUV southeast, where it collided with a third vehicle, the sergeant said. Parmley said he believes the big-rig driver was unhurt, but it was not clear early Thursday afternoon whether the two people hurt were both the driver and passenger of the SUV or whether an occupant of the third vehicle was injured.
Within a few minutes of the crash, police were informed of a disturbance in the parking lot of a nearby movie theater, the sergeant said. The reporting party said a man was on top of a vehicle, pounding on it.
It turned out the vehicle was the SUV involved in the crash, Parmley said. At some point before the vehicle left the parking lot, the man pounding on the SUV got in, and he and the driver argued prior to going off the overpass, the sergeant said.
Shortly afterward, there was a three-vehicle collision in the northbound lanes, apparently as a result of drivers distracted by the southbound collisions, the California Highway Patrol reported.
For about an hour, the crash blocked southbound 99 between Fulkerth and West Main, and the Police Department used social media to advise drivers to use alternate routes.
This story was originally published August 13, 2020 at 1:56 PM.
