Driver killed, child badly injured in crash north of Waterford. CHP suspects DUI
A Waterford man, 26, was killed and three young boys were injured in what the California Highway Patrol said it believes was a DUI crash Friday night north of Waterford.
The crash was about 9:45 p.m. on Ellenwood Road north of the Oakdale-Waterford Highway, according to a CHP news release.
The investigation found that the driver of a Ford Mustang was southbound on Ellenwood when he failed to properly negotiate a curve in the road and let the Ford travel onto the east shoulder, where it hit a tree.
The driver and an 8-year-old boy were ejected from the car. The man was pronounced dead at the scene and the boy was airlifted to the UC Davis Medical center in Sacramento for treatment of major injuries.
Two other boys, ages 6 and 8, were taken by ambulance to the same medical center as a precaution, the news release says. All the boys are from Waterford. The Mustang caught fire after the boys got out of it, according to the Stanislaus Consolidated Fire Protection District.
The CHP says the driver and the badly hurt boy apparently were not wearing their seat belts and that alcohol was a factor in this collision.
This was the fourth fatal crash in Stanislaus County since Wednesday. The first was Wednesday night when a dirt bike rider died and his passenger was hurt in a crash with a pickup north of Oakdale.
Early Thursday, a man died in a wrong-way-driving collision on Highway 132 west of Modesto.
And a Turlock man was killed shortly after 6 p.m. Thursday when he lost control of his car in the Westley area.
