A 42-year-old Fresno man died Sunday night after the Toyota Camry he was driving overturned on Highway 41 south of Fresno, ejecting him from the vehicle before it came to rest on top of him. He wasn't wearing a seat belt, and he was pronounced dead at the scene.
The California Highway Patrol received a report of the crash around 7:45 p.m., according to YourCentralValley.com. Officers arrived to find the Camry on the west shoulder of southbound Highway 41 just south of Nebraska Avenue, with the driver found underneath the vehicle and pronounced deceased at the scene, the CHP said, according to the Fresno Bee. YourCentralValley.com likewise places the wreck on southbound Highway 41 near that stretch of road.
Accounts of what the Camry was doing just before the crash diverge. The Fresno Bee reports the car was speeding south on Highway 41 before the driver made an abrupt left steering movement, while YourCentralValley.com reports the Camry was traveling northbound at a high rate of speed. What both reports agree on, per the CHP, is that the vehicle then crossed the center median and the southbound lanes before entering the west shoulder and overturning.
Possible Link to Earlier Hit-and-Run Under Investigation
Investigators say a vehicle matching the Camry's description had been broadcast by the Fresno Police Department in connection with an earlier hit-and-run within the city, the report notes. The CHP said that possible connection remains under investigation, as does the crash itself, according to the same account.
It remains unknown whether alcohol or drugs played any role in Sunday's crash. Toxicology results are still pending, the Fresno Bee reports.
Highway 41 Has Seen Other Deadly Crashes
Sunday's fatality adds to a string of deadly incidents on the same stretch of roadway this year. In a separate crash on Highway 41 near Highway 180, the Fresno County Coroner identified the victim as 31-year-old Selma man Carlos Sandoval, whose Toyota Camry had stopped in a southbound lane before a Kia Optima driven by a 33-year-old Fresno woman struck it from behind, according to the Fresno Bee. Sandoval was taken to the hospital, where he died, and a 3-year-old passenger riding in the Kia later died from his injuries on May 20, ABC30 reported.
In another fatal incident on the highway, a 48-year-old Woodlake man was struck and killed while crossing Highway 41 in Fresno on a Wednesday evening, with the CHP saying alcohol and drugs were not believed to have been factors in that crash, per the Fresno Bee's reporting on that separate case.
