A California man, whose motorcycle had run out of gas, was one of two people killed in an Oildale traffic accident involving a sheriff’s patrol car. The motorcyclist reportedly met up with a friend as he was pushing his motorcycle to the house of one of his relative’s. The two pedestrians were struck down by a fast-moving Kern’s County patrol car Friday.
The 24-year-old motorcyclist and a 30-year-old female family friend died at the scene of the tragic pedestrian accident. The sheriff’s deputy reportedly suffered minor injuries in the crash and was released from the hospital later that same evening.
Witnesses say the patrol car was moving at a high-rate of speed just prior to the fatal pedestrian accident. A family member of the woman killed in the accident says witnesses told her they thought the patrol car was moving between 75 and 90 miles per hour just before the 7:30 p.m. crash. The posted speed on the road where the patrol car was traveling is 45 miles per hour.
Bystanders say that the patrol car was not using its lights and sirens before the fatal high-speed accident. The sergeant with the California Highway Patrol says he cannot confirm the witnesses’ reports that the deputy turned on his emergency lights after the fatal crash.
One 16-year-old driver who arrived at the scene just after the crash says it was clear the two victims suffered severe trauma in the accident. The teen driver arrived with a friend. They were out for a drive together on a Friday evening and saw the patrol car speed past at an intersection roughly one-block east of the fatal pedestrian accident. The two victims were alongside the motorcycle when the accident occurred, pushing the bike through an intersection. They reportedly were not in a crosswalk.
The CHP says the patrol car “openly struck” the two pedestrians who were pronounced dead at the scene.
Source: Bakersfield Californian, “Outrage in Oildale after crash,” Jason Kotowski and Steven Mayer, Dec. 17, 2011
