GilroyDispatch.com | Updated: CHP confirms Highway 156 accident victim's identity

Updated: CHP confirms Highway 156 accident victim's identity

May 19, 2008
By Curtis Cartier

California Highway Patrol has confirmed the name of the Seaside man who was killed Sunday on Highway 156 when he drove his sedan across the center line and collided head on with a big-rig truck.

Renard Phillips, 49, was eastbound on Highway 156 in a 1996 Cadillac sedan shortly before 4 p.m. when he traveled off the road and hit a guardrail, according to a CHP press release. After the sedan smashed into the guardrail, it was forced back on the roadway.

At the same time Rosendo Ramirez, 39, of Los Banos, was westbound in a 1998 Peterbilt truck owned by True Leaf Farms in Salinas. Once the sedan hit the guardrail, it traveled into the wrong lane. Ramirez could not avoid the car and smashed into it head on, according to the CHP.

After a sobriety test, authorities arrested the uninjured Los Banos truck driver for driving while under the influence, but the California Highway Patrol's incident report indicates he did not cause the accident.

CHP Spokesman Chris Armstrong of the Hollister-Gilroy CHP office said the man was trapped in the vehicle and, when officers arrived, he had no pulse and was pronounced dead.

Highway 156 was closed for approximately five hours to perform an investigation.

Curtis Cartier
Curtis Cartier covers Hollister for South Valley Newspapers. Reach him at (831) 637-5566 or email him.

blog comments powered by Disqus

Although the Gilroy Dispatch does not have any obligation to monitor this board, the Gilroy Dispatch reserves the right at all times to check this board and to remove any information or materials that are unlawful, threatening, abusive, libelous, defamatory, obscene, vulgar, pornographic, profane, indecent or otherwise objectionable to the Gilroy Dispatch in our sole discretion and to disclose any information necessary to satisfy the law, regulation, or government request. The Gilroy Dispatch also reserves the right to permanently block any user who violates these terms and conditions. All threats to systems or site infrastructure shall be assumed genuine in nature and will be reported to the appropriate law enforcement authorities. Submission of any comments will be considered permission to use online or in print.

© Copyright 2008 MainStreet Media, LLC. All Rights Reserved. Any copying, redistribution or retransmission of any of the contents of this service without the express written consent of MainStreet Media, LLC. is expressly prohibited.