Details emerge in fatal Highway 1 crash

MOSS LANDING — The California Highway Patrol is saying a Castroville man’s life was taken in a Highway 1 crash when a utility truck driver losing control of his vehicle.

The driver, a 36-year-old Florida man, was traveling southbound on Highway 1 north of Jetty Road in a Freightliner two-axle truck when he began to off the edge of the road, according to CHP Monterey spokesperson Jessica Madueño. The driver then overcorrected and lost control of the truck, allowing the vehicle to collide head-on with a northbound Toyota Camry, Madueño wrote in a release.

The impact of the collision caused the Freightliner to overturn on top of the Toyota and then strike a Dodge Durango traveling behind the Camry, according to the CHP. All three vehicles went off the east side of the roadway, where the Freightliner struck an AT&T pole and came to rest on its roof.

The Camry’s driver, whose identity had yet to be released by the Monterey County Sheriff Coroner’s Office on Wednesday, died at the scene. The Durango’s driver, a 41-year-old Salinas man, suffered moderate injuries and was transported to an area hospital. The Freightliner driver was treated at the scene and released.

Drugs or alcohol are not suspected to be a factor in the crash, according to the CHP.