A motorcyclist was killed on westbound Interstate 80 in Hercules after colliding with an SUV, an impact that ejected him into the path of a second vehicle and set off a chain-reaction crash involving nine more cars. The wreck happened last Saturday night in Contra Costa County and shut down the freeway for hours, injuring two other people.
According to KRON4, the motorcycle first collided with a blue Honda CR-V, throwing the rider from his bike. CHP Officer Dan Gilmore said another vehicle then struck the ejected rider, who was pronounced dead at the scene just west of Sycamore Avenue. The rider was identified only as a man in his mid-20s from Yuba City in Sutter County.
Officer Gilmore told SFGATE that the initial collision cascaded into a secondary pileup of nine trailing vehicles at around 11:30 p.m., bringing the total number of vehicles involved to 11. Two people suffered minor injuries in the chain-reaction crashes. The California Highway Patrol’s Contra Costa Area office, based in Martinez, holds primary patrol and investigative jurisdiction over this stretch of I-80 and is handling the case.
Freeway Shut Down for Hours During Investigation
The westbound lanes were closed for about an hour and a half as crews worked the scene, according to the same report. All lanes did not fully reopen until roughly four and a half hours after the initial crash, as officers investigated and cleared the wreckage of 11 vehicles from the roadway. As of yesterday afternoon, the crash remained under investigation, per Officer Gilmore…