Man dies in suspected drunk driving crash in Sacramento Delta area. Car overturned in ditch
A man died Wednesday night after the car he was driving went off a rural Sacramento County road and into a drainage ditch where it overturned in a suspected drunk driving crash, the California Highway Patrol reported.
The single-vehicle fatal crash was reported shortly after 9 p.m. along Race Track Road, just north of Tyler Island Road near the small town of Walnut Grove in the Sacramento Delta.
The man who died was driving a 2012 BMW north on Race Track Road with a 37-year-old Elk Grove woman as his passenger in the car, the CHP South Sacramento Area Office announced in a news release.
The CHP said its preliminary investigation indicates the BMW was moving at high rate of speed as the car approached a curve in the road to the right, where the driver lost control of the car.
The BMW then veered to the right shoulder of southbound lane and into a 15- to 20-foot-deep agricultural drainage ditch, where the car overturned and came to a stop in a northerly direction. The CHP said the ditch had about 2 feet of water.
Medics arrived, determined the BMW’s driver had succumbed to his injuries and pronounced him dead at the scene. The Sacramento County Coroner will release his name, age and city of residence after his family has been notified.
The CHP said the passenger in the BMW suffered minor injuries and was taken by ambulance to a hospital.
CHP investigators believe alcohol was a factor in the deadly crash.
