Elk Grove man killed, woman badly hurt in crash. Speed and alcohol involved, CHP says
An Elk Grove man was killed and a woman seriously injured after a vehicle crashed into a drainage ditch and a car parked in a residential driveway early Tuesday morning in Sacramento County’s Vineyard area.
The California Highway Patrol said speed and alcohol are believed to be factors in the crash, which killed the driver and ejected the passenger, the latter of whom was not wearing a seat belt. Both occupants were 21 years old, the CHP said.
The crash took place shortly before 2:30 a.m. near Grant Line Road, Sheldon Lake Drive and Sunrise Boulevard, the CHP South Sacramento office said in a news release. Sunrise turns into Sheldon Lake south of Grant Line, transitioning from a major thoroughfare to a neighborhood.
While there were no witnesses and the passenger was injured too severely to give an account, the CHP said its investigators believe that the driver of a 2021 Honda was traveling southbound on Sunrise Boulevard at a high rate of speed when he continued through the intersection at Grant Line Road.
The driver did not brake and failed to negotiate the left-hand curve in the roadway on Sheldon Lake Drive. The Honda left the roadway, entered a drainage ditch and began to overturn, according to the CHP collision report.
“The Honda overturned multiple times, collided with a wooden fence and a parked vehicle” in a driveway on Sheldon Lake Drive, “overturned some more, and came to rest on its wheels in a vacant lot.”
The passenger was ejected from the vehicle at some point in the crash, while the driver was “pinned” in the driver’s seat. Sacramento Metropolitan Fire District personnel helped extricate him from the vehicle, the CHP said.
The driver and passenger were both taken to a hospital with major injuries, where the driver was pronounced dead shortly after 4 a.m.
The CHP news release did not name either party but described both as 21-year-old Elk Grove residents. The deceased driver’s identity will be released by the Sacramento County Coroner’s Office pending notification of family.
“We do believe alcohol is a factor in the collision,” CHP South Sacramento officials wrote.
The crash remains under investigation.
This story was originally published August 9, 2022 at 11:03 AM.
