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CLEARLAKE OAKS, Calif. – A vehicle collision near Clearlake Oaks on Wednesday evening claimed the lives of two people.
The crash, which occurred near the intersection of Highway 20 and Highway 53, was reported just after 6 p.m. Wednesday, according to radio traffic.
Northshore Fire Deputy Chief Pat Brown and Lake County Fire Protection Chief Willie Sapeta both were on scene, along with paramedics and firefighters from their districts, a Cal Fire battalion chief, the California Highway Patrol and Lake County sheriff’s deputies.
Brown, who was incident commander, said the crash involved a Jeep and what he said was a bobtail truck, which he described as a small moving van-type vehicle.
There were five patients with critical or major injuries, according to initial reports from Sapeta, who oversaw operations at the scene. Three of the victims were said to be unresponsive when firefighters arrived.
Brown said the two people killed in the crash were in the bobtail truck. The three surviving crash victims were in the Jeep.
He requested two air ambulances and REACH 6 and CalStar 4 responded, setting down at two separate nearby landing zones in the field between Highway 20 and Highway 53.
Brown said a 12-year-old girl who had been in the Jeep was transported to UC Davis Medical Center, while the male driver was taken to Santa Rosa Memorial. A third patient from the Jeep refused service.
The roadway was reopened shortly before 7 p.m., the CHP said.
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LOWER LAKE, Calif. – Local authorities are investigating the death of a man whose body was found in a remote area near Lower Lake Wednesday.
The man’s body was discovered in the area of the 23000 block of Morgan Valley and Rocky Creek roads late Wednesday morning, according to reports from the scene.
A neighbor was reported to have found the man on the ground next to his pickup.
Reports from the scene indicated both the man and the vehicle were covered in blood.
Lake County Fire Protection District firefighters initially responded to the location minutes before noon on the report of an assault victim. En route at the same time were several Lake County Sheriff’s units.
Fire officials reported staging at an access road to a residence just after 12:15 p.m.
The fire response was canceled by Central Dispatch shortly before 12:40 p.m. after it was confirmed that the man was dead.
Sheriff’s officials were reported to still be in the area late Wednesday afternoon.
Additional details were not immediately available from local authorities.
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LAKE COUNTY, Calif. – Several crashes were reported along the Northshore on Tuesday as the season’s rainy conditions continued.
The California Highway Patrol reported that the wrecks happened along Highway 20 throughout the afternoon and into the evening.
A solo pickup rollover was reported just after 4 p.m. near Paradise Cove. The CHP said minor injuries resulted.
Another minor injury crash occurred less than an hour later, just before 5 p.m.,when two vehicles crashed on Highway 20 at Verna Way near Glenhaven, the CHP said.
Kelseyville resident Tera Means was driving toward Glenhaven when she came upon the crash, which she said involved a blue Scion and a white Chevy.
Means said the driver of the Scion stated that he had lost control and hit the other vehicle.
She said two elderly men in the Chevy were uninjured and the son of the man driving the Scion had some minor injuries, mostly scratches from the seat belt. Means, who has first aid training, didn’t see any other injuries.
The greatest danger at the time, she said, was that the two vehicles were blocking the highway. She told the crash victims they needed to get out of the road for their safety.
“As I said that, cars were screeching to a halt,” as they came around the bend, she said.
The CHP said a noninjury crash also occurred on Highway 20 near Walker Ridge Road shortly after 7:30 p.m. Details about that crash were not immediately available.
Due to the wet weather, there were CHP reports of rock and mudslides on Highway 175 and a tree down blocking the road at Crystal Lake Way in Lakeport.
A major injury crash that occurred at around 2 p.m. at the intersection of Highway 20 and Highway 53 sent three to the hospital, as Lake County News has reported.
Based on the CHP report on that wreck, the cause appeared to be based on one driver’s failure to stop rather than weather conditions.
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As people in New Jersey and New York continue to recover from Hurricane Sandy, the American Red Cross will be handing out thousands of boxes of food before Thanksgiving and also providing about 35,000 hot Thanksgiving meals to people in need.
“As families across America sit down to share a Thanksgiving meal, it’s important to remember that many people in New Jersey and New York are still struggling,” said Jennifer Jones, Disaster Services Director for the California Northwest Region. “Red Cross volunteers will be working throughout the holiday weekend to make sure residents aren’t going hungry.”
So far, 46 trained Red Crossers from the California Northwest region (Sonoma, Mendocino, Lake, Napa, Humboldt and Del Norte counties) have traveled east to help the residents.
Some local volunteers have returned already; others are extending their volunteering past their original deployment; still others are leaving now or in the near future.
Recent deployments have included Regional Red Cross CEO Tim Miller, and three Red Cross volunteers who also are firefighters from the Valley Ford Fire Department.
The Red Cross will deliver about 20,000 boxes of food in New York during Thanksgiving week. These boxes contain enough non-perishable food to feed a family of four for several days; items such as canned sweet potatoes, green beans and corn, and packages of mashed potatoes and rice.
Thousands of boxes were packed by Red Cross volunteers last weekend in Richmond, Va., and additional boxes are being provided through a partnership with Feeding America and the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
On Thursday, the Red Cross will serve Thanksgiving lunches – including turkey, mashed potatoes and apple pie – from fixed feeding sites in New Jersey and New York. Red Cross response vehicles will also travel through affected neighborhoods to provide these meals.
This is a continuation of the extensive Red Cross feeding operation that has been underway for weeks, carried out in partnership with the Southern Baptist Convention.
Thanks to the generosity of the American public, the Red Cross has been helping people since before Sandy made landfall, and will continue to help for weeks to come as families get back on their feet.
This is likely to be the largest Red Cross response in the U.S. in the past five years. Nearly 5,100 Red Cross workers are supporting shelters and providing meals and supplies at fixed sites and driving through neighborhoods.
Since Hurricane Sandy made landfall, the Red Cross has:
- Served 6.6 million meals and snacks;
- Distributed 3.9 million relief items, such as hygiene items, cleaning supplies, flashlights, rakes, shovels, tarps, dust masks, work gloves and cold weather items;
- Provided more than 77,000 overnight shelter stays;
- Made more than 77,000 health services and emotional support contacts; and
- Mobilized more than 10,500 trained workers from all 50 states; about 90 percent of these workers are volunteers.
For more information, visit www.redcross.org .
CLEARLAKE OAKS, Calif. – Three people were seriously hurt in a head-on collision near Clearlake Oaks Tuesday afternoon.
Leslie Uboldi Jr., 52, of Eureka, and Clearlake Oaks residents Robert Roberts, 80, and 64-year-old Mary Reaume were injured in the wreck, according to the California Highway Patrol’s Clear Lake Area office.
The crash occurred shortly after 2 p.m. at the intersection of Highway 20 and Highway 53, known as the “Y,” the CHP said.
The report from CHP Officer Josh Dye explained that when the crash occurred Uboldi was driving a 2002 Oldsmobile Alero eastbound on Highway 20 approaching Highway 53 in the No. 2 lane at approximately 60 miles per hour.
Roberts, driving a 2002 Chevrolet S-10 pickup with Reaume as his passenger in the front seat, was in the left turn lane of westbound Highway 20 waiting to turn onto southbound Highway 53, Dye said.
Dye’s report said Roberts began to turn left across the intersection while Uboldi failed to slow or stop for the stop sign at the intersection.
The intersection has stop signs at two of its three arms, one for eastbound traffic on Highway 20 and one for traffic turning from Highway 53 onto Highway 20. The westbound lane of Highway 20 and its turn lane do not have stop signs.
Uboldi’s and Roberts’ vehicles hit head-on, with Roberts’ pickup rotating counter clockwise, ejecting Reaume – who was not wearing her seat belt – onto Highway 20, Dye said.
Uboldi’s vehicle rolled off the southeast edge of Highway 53, south of Highway 20, according to Dye.
Dye said all three crash victims were transported to St. Helena Hospital Clear Lake for treatment of major injuries.
He said alcohol use was not suspected as a cause of the crash.
While Reaume was not belted, both Uboldi and Roberts were using their seat belts, Dye said.
The cause of the collision still remains under investigation, Dye reported.
LAKE COUNTY, Calif. – A local man has claimed the prize he won last week in the California Lottery.
Paul Reed of Cobb hit it big playing the California Lottery’s Fantasy 5 game in the Nov. 15 draw.
Reed’s was one of two lucky tickets that matched all five winning numbers – 11, 3, 37, 2 and 7.
He and the second ticket holder – David Gillette, who purchased his ticket in Sacramento and claimed his prize last Friday – each won $179,745.
Reed bought his ticket at Cobb Texaco, 16390 Highway 175.
Reed said he’s been using these numbers for years, believing that they would eventually pay off.
“I got them off of a mailbox. They were an address,” said Reed.
He began putting the numbers in different combinations, until he landed on a grouping that felt right.
Reed has used the numbers in other draw games, but said the real mojo came about when he began giving Fantasy 5 a shot a few months ago.
“I hit three numbers a couple of times,” he said.
That was enough to convince him that he was onto something good.
Reed said the lucky vibe he had in playing last week was so strong that he intentionally waited until after the weekend to check his numbers, hoping to extend the moment.
His feelings were verified when he checked the Lottery’s Web site, but his wife Susan said reality didn’t hit them until they went back to the retailer and saw the winner announcement sign.
“There it was on the door. We jumped up and down. It’s real,” said Susan Reed.
Reed is the second Lake County lottery winner in the past two months.
In early October, Antonio Velasquez, a retired postmaster living in Clearlake Oaks, claimed his $14 million SuperLotto Plus jackpot that he won on a ticket he purchased at the town’s Red and White Store, as Lake County News has reported.