One Watsonville resident was killed and another suffered minor
injuries in a collision on the Highway 129 off-ramp, just outside
of San Juan Bautista on Saturday morning.
One Watsonville resident was killed and another suffered minor injuries in a collision on the Highway 129 off-ramp, just outside of San Juan Bautista on Saturday morning.
Around 1:30 a.m., 21-year-old Gilberto Ruiz Magallon was driving his convertible 2003 Ford Mustang southbound on Highway 101 with 21-year-old Watsonville resident Samuel Alberto Delgado-Solorio in the passenger seat. When Magallon took the Highway 129 off-ramp at an unknown rate of speed, he lost control when he misjudged a slight turn in the road and shot over the off-ramp and down an embankment, said California Highway Patrol Officer Brad Voyles.
The car sped over a portion of dirt and then back up and over the overpass where it slammed into a big-rig that was stopped at the stop sign facing Highway 129 westbound, Voyles said.
“That area is not designed to be driving up,” Voyles said. “He had to be moving along at a good speed to go up that hill and to induce fatal injuries when he got there.”
After colliding with the semi, the Mustang, which had its top off, rolled back down the embankment and landed upside down, Voyles said. Delgado-Solorio was able to lie down enough in the car to avoid suffering major injuries, he said.
Both occupants were wearing their seat belts, and Delgado-Solorio suffered minor lacerations to his head and hands and was air-lifted to Stanford Medical Center for treatment. Magallon was pronounced dead at the scene due to blunt force trauma, Voyles said.
The 2004 Peterbilt tractor and utility trailer was driven by Mississippi resident Danny R. Williams, 49, who did not suffer any injuries, Voyles said.
There was some minor damage done to the trailer but Williams was able to drive the truck away from the accident scene, Voyles said.
Magallon’s car was totaled, Voyles said.
An autopsy is scheduled for Wednesday. A toxicology test will be performed but the results will not be back for 10 to 14 days, said Detective Sgt. Wes Walker of the San Benito County Sheriff’s Department.
Magallon’s body will be released to a funeral home in Watsonville after the autopsy, Walker said.
