KELSEYVILLE — The Lake County Sheriff”s Office thinks they have identified the man who died Saturday night following a car crash and fire near Kelseyville Auto Wreckers.
Geronimo Mateos Hernandez, 21, of Stockton is believed to be the driver who died, although positive identification and the exact cause of death is pending the outcome of an autopsy, Capt. Jim Bauman said in a press release.
About 11 p.m. Saturday, the man was driving a 2004 silver Dodge Stratus north on Highway 29 south of Highway 175 to Cobb at an undetermined speed when for unknown reasons he didn”t turn with the road, Officer Steve Tanguay of CHP said. The Dodge went left across the southbound lane and hit a dirt embankment on the west side of the road. The car spun and the back of the Dodge hit a tree crushing the car. The car continued to spin and came to a rest facing north on the west shoulder of Highway 29.
The damage to the back of the car might have caused the gas tank to ignite and start a fire, Tanguay said.
Passers-by stopped to help the driver, but the fire consumed the car quickly and the driver was unable to escape, Tanguay said. ?
“It sounds like he was pinned or the doors were not operable,” he said.
By the time two Kelseyville fire engines and CHP responded, the car was engulfed in flames and a 20-foot by 20-foot patch of vegetation alongside the road was burning, engineer and paramedic Brian Burnham of Kelseyville fire said. Fire crews quickly put out the fires with a hose from each engine.
No one else was injured as a result of the crash, Tanguay said.
Contact Katy Sweeny at kdsweeny@gmail.com or call her directly at 263-5636, ext. 37.
