UPPER LAKE — Jose Pepe Quintero, 38, died Sunday as a result of injuries he sustained when the 2001 Chevrolet Camaro he was driving drifted off of Upper Lake Lucerne Road and struck a wooden fence, according to the California Highway Patrol.
“It was a great shock. It was a devastating loss for our family,” Stephanie Rodriguez, Quintero”s sister said Monday.
Rodriguez described her brother as an “always happy and positive” person who helped bring their family together. Quintero lived and worked as a laborer on the Robinson Rancheria reservation.
Rodriguez, several other family members and friends visited the site of the accident, the 9000 block of Upper Lake Lucerne Road in Upper Lake, for the first time Monday afternoon. The family members grieved near muddy tire tracks, covered bloody soil and removed pieces of the car from the area.
Just after 4:30 p.m. Sunday, Quintero and passenger Rafael Biancas were traveling in the road”s northbound lane when the Camaro drifted to the left off of the road and struck several fence posts and 2×6 cross-members, CHP Officer Steve Tanguay said.
One of the cross-members broke through the windshield on the driver”s side and struck Quintero, Tanguay said. Quintero was transported to Sutter Lakeside Hospital by REACH helicopter, Tanguay said.
Rodriguez said she remembered seeing the helicopter in the air as she drove to the hospital. Upon her arrival, doctors informed the family that the “trauma was too massive” and Quintero had died, Rodriguez said.
The CHP said that the Camaro was traveling at “an unknown speed” but did not list a reason the vehicle drifted from the road. Biancas told the family that Quintero was in the process of changing CDs just before the crash, Rodriguez said.
Officers placed Quintero under arrest for driving under the influence at the scene, Tanguay said, and “alcohol is believed to be a factor.” Quintero had previously been arrested on Christmas Eve for a misdemeanor DUI offense.
Patricia Hernandez, who lives across the street from where the Camaro came to rest, said she heard the crash Sunday afternoon and called 9-1-1. She said she was “shaken” and saddened by the fatal crash.
Speeding has been a problem on that stretch of Upper Lake Lucerne Road, Hernandez said, and it “wasn”t a question of if, but when and where” a crash would occur. She said her husband and “numerous” neighbors placed calls to the CHP and the Lake County Sheriff”s Office over the past year requesting help with speeding traffic.
The CHP had received phone calls from residents in that area, Tanguay said, but because the CHP has been “so short-staffed,” its officers must focus on roads with high numbers of accidents. Sunday”s crash was the second accident on Upper Lake Lucerne Road in the past 10 years, Tanguay said.
No county speed ordinance exists for the Upper Lake Lucerne Road, meaning its speed limit is 55 miles per hour, which is not uncommon for “county back roads,” Tanguay said. There are no speed limit signs posted on the road.
The incident is still under investigation, Tanguay said.
Family and friends will be able to view the body and say their good byes at the reservation later in the week, Rodriguez said. Quintero will be buried at the old Robinson Rancheria cemetery off of Highway 29, she said.
Contact Jeremy Walsh at jwalsh@record-bee.com or call him at 263-5636, ext. 37.
