Crash into historic Death Valley building kills truck driver in CA, park says
A semitruck driver died after the rig crashed into a historic building inside Death Valley National Park in California, the National Park Service said.
The truck slammed into the Emigrant Ranger Station in Death Valley National Park just after 2 p.m. on Tuesday, May 20, the service said in a news release.
“A brake malfunction” likely caused the crash, the service said.
The truck collided with the station’s “porch, destroying two stone columns, damaging the roof, and breaking windows,” the park service said.
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Emigrant Ranger Station, a stone structure “built in the 1930s by the Civilian Conservation Corps,” was where “Stan Jones wrote the song ‘Ghost Riders in the Sky’” in 1947 while he was working as a park ranger, the park said.
No other vehicles were involved in the crash, the park service said.
Park staff said they responded to manage the scene, where the road was covered in “a dry form of sodium sulfate mined in the Searles Valley” and diesel fuel from the truck.
The destroyed truck was also blocking the road, the park service said, adding that a stretch of California Highway 190 between Stovepipe Wells and Towne Pass was closed for nearly a day.
Overnight, a hazmat team arrived to handle the spill cleanup, and the highway was fully reopened at about 11:30 a.m. on May 21, the park said.
“CA-190 has long, steep grades on both sides of Towne Pass, which can lead to brakes overheating in heavy vehicles,” the park service said.
A truck burnt on its Towne Pass descent on April 9, while an additional six vehicles caught fire below the pass last year, the park service said.
Death Valley National Park straddles the California–Nevada border.
