Fatal crash on Highway 160 closes road for 4 hours

Highway 160 was closed early Sunday morning in southern Sacramento County due to a fatal crash, officials said.

A pickup truck hit a parked utility truck and sparked a quarter-acre vegetation fire on Sherman Island East Levee Road near the Three Mile Slough Bridge, according to CHP logs.

The CHP closed the highway at 5:19 a.m. and reopened it four hours later, CHP logs show.

South Sacramento CHP units and Rio Vista fire crews responded to the report of a car fire at 3:54 a.m. Sunday.

The initial report indicated that a pickup truck had caught fire on Highway 160. However, when officers reached the fire, they found two vehicles — the Nissan pickup and a disabled GMC flatbed truck — that had been involved in an accident. Both were on fire, CHP said in a Facebook post.

A CHP investigation revealed that the pickup crashed into the other truck, which was properly stopped on the right northbound shoulder of the highway, according to the CHP post.

After the crash, the trucks rolled down an embankment and became engulfed in flames, sparking a vegetation fire, CHP said.

The pickup driver was pronounced dead at the scene. The Sacramento County Coroner’s Office is investigating whether alcohol or drugs had a part in the crash, according to the CHP post.