One person was killed and eight were injured Monday evening on state Highway 152 east of Gilroy after a tractor-trailer triggered a crash with eight other vehicles, according to the California Highway Patrol.
The CHP was dispatched at 5:23 p.m. Monday to the crash scene on Highway 152 east of Ferguson Road in unincorporated Santa Clara County to find one person dead after being badly burned inside a car, CHP Officer Amy Tritenbach.
According to an initial investigation, the CHP determined that the tractor-trailer driven by Gregory Wells, 49, of Madera, was heading west on the highway approaching traffic that had slowed or stopped at a red light at the intersection at Ferguson Road.
Wells failed to stop and collided with the rear and sides of several cars on the westbound side of the roadway, then veered left toward the eastbound lanes where he hit the sides of other cars there, Tritenbach said.
Wells' big-rig pushed a sedan on the eastbound side of the highway into an agricultural field where it came to a stop, according to the CHP.
A fire then engulfed the sedan and the cab of Wells' vehicle.
Two bystanders removed Wells from his truck, CHP officials said. Emergency personnel pronounced the driver of the sedan dead at the scene.
The person was too badly burned for the CHP to even identify their gender, Tritenbach said.
Of the eight others injured, three suffered major injuries, including a 59-year-old Fremont man, and a 58-year-old man from San Martin.
The CHP is still trying to piece together what happened and will again interview Wells, who suffered minor injuries, Tritenbach said.
"Obviously, this is going to be a long investigation," she said.
The Santa Clara County medical examiner's office is not able to provide any information on the person killed until their family members are notified, an employee at the office said.
--Bay City News
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