California Highway Patrol has confirmed the name of the Seaside
man who was killed Sunday on Highway 156 when he drove his sedan
across the center line and collided head on with a big-rig
truck.
California Highway Patrol has confirmed the name of the Seaside man who was killed Sunday on Highway 156 when he drove his sedan across the center line and collided head on with a big-rig truck.
Renard Phillips, 49, was eastbound on Highway 156 in a 1996 Cadillac sedan shortly before 4 p.m. when he traveled off the road and hit a guardrail, according to a CHP press release. After the sedan smashed into the guardrail, it was forced back on the roadway.
At the same time Rosendo Ramirez, 39, of Los Banos, was westbound in a 1998 Peterbilt truck owned by True Leaf Farms in Salinas. Once the sedan hit the guardrail, it traveled into the wrong lane. Ramirez could not avoid the car and smashed into it head on, according to the CHP.
After a sobriety test, authorities arrested the uninjured Los Banos truck driver for driving while under the influence, but the California Highway Patrol’s incident report indicates he did not cause the accident.
CHP Spokesman Chris Armstrong of the Hollister-Gilroy CHP office said the man was trapped in the vehicle and, when officers arrived, he had no pulse and was pronounced dead.
Highway 156 was closed for approximately five hours to perform an investigation.
