One Killed, One Injured in Car Accident at Patterson Pass and Schulte Rd in Tracy, CA
Tracy, CA — June 21, 2022, a man was killed and another was injured when a car collided with a parked 18-wheeler along Patterson Pass Road in Tracy.
According to reports the wreck happened around 4:35 p.m. at the intersection of Patterson Pass and Schulte roads. Preliminary investigation suggests a car's 22-year-old driver tried to make a turn at the intersection but lost control and crashed into a nearby parked semi-truck with a loaded trailer.
The driver died of his injuries at an area hospital. His 19-year-old passenger suffered non-life-threatening injuries and was also hospitalized.
The crash remains under investigation. No further information is available at this time.
Commentary on Car Accident at Patterson Pass and Schulte in Tracy
Looking at the intersection in question it seems to be a large light-controlled crossing surrounded on all four corners by parking lots. That makes me wonder more than a little about the term used in news reports: "Parked." Was that just an unfortunate misuse of the word when "stopped" would have been more appropriate? Did the car hit a big rig that was just stopped for its own red light, or was truck somehow parked in one of the active traffic lanes?
This isn't a matter of hair-splitting for the sake of it. When people are hurt or killed in a crash, the least anyone can do is learn precisely how that happened and convey it appropriately if they talk about it. A truck literally parked in the roadway would be a wholly different issue to examine versus one simply stopped at a light until it could go.
Hopefully news copy will be revised or clarified to make more sense of that point, but it's issues like that which make me so leery of preliminary reports in the first place. Sometimes the news just fumbles what it's trying to say, but other times it's more or less directly quoting the information it got from police. In either case, the result is a confusing description that could mean wholly different things depending on what the correct interpretation is. Rather than wait for someone to straighten the matter out, many victims and families find it more to their benefit to work with independent investigators and find the facts for themselves.
