Driver dies after entering Northern California highway roundabout ‘at high speed’
A driver was killed when he crashed his pickup in a roundabout on a highway in the Sierra Nevada foothills, the California Highway Patrol said.
The single-vehicle crash was reported at 5:07 p.m. Sunday on Highway 49 south of Jamestown.
A GMC Yukon southbound on the highway entered the roundabout “at high speed” and “made an unsafe turning movement,” the CHP report said. The truck hit a light pole and overturned more than once, ejecting the driver.
He was taken to a Modesto hospital, where he died. The CHP identified him as Jesus Rubio, 40, of Modesto.
A tire that came off the pickup as it flipped struck a northbound vehicle, and its driver — a Stockton man — suffered minor injuries.
Both lanes of the highway remained closed until 8 p.m. The CHP said alcohol or drugs are suspected as a factor in the crash.
The roundabout, near the Chicken Ranch Casino, has been open since September. The speed limit on the two-lane Highway 49 is 55 mph, but signs at the roundabout advise slowing to 20.
The Chicken Ranch Rancheria of Me-Wuk Indians of California had backed the roundabout, saying it would be safer for traffic to and from the casino and other tribal land. Among the traffic deaths the tribe cited was that of Rebekah Gall, who was killed in a 2022 head-on crash caused by a former Pleasanton police officer.