Man Killed in Box Truck Accident on West Main Street in Santa Maria, CA
Santa Maria, CA -- January 23, 2023, a man was killed after an accident where a box truck and another vehicle crashed on Main Street.
Initial details about the crash said that it happened at around 6:44 p.m. along Main Street at Kathleen Court.
It appears that a 21-year-old man was in a Cadillac which was westbound along Main Street. Details say a box truck "was pulling out onto Main" when the vehicles collided.
The 21-year-old man in the Cadillac sustained fatal injuries as a result of the crash. No other injuries were reported. At this time, additional details are unavailable.
Details surrounding this crash are still unconfirmed, so I want to be clear that I have no specific information beyond what's already available to the public. But one detail worth considering is the area where this occurred and the way I keep seeing the events described in the news.
The most recent images of this stretch of road show Main to be a two lane, two way road with wide shoulders and a center turn lane. Nowhere do I see a stop sign or traffic signal for traffic on Main. So when just about every report on this crash says a truck was "pulling onto" the road, aren't they essentially confirming that the truck failed to yield the right-of-way to the victim?
To be clear, I myself talk on this blog about how early details have to be taken with a grain of salt. Saying a truck was pulling onto a road could mean many things, it could overlook crucial extenuating circumstances, and there isn't any information about the victim or any other vehicles around them. That said, I've been doing this long enough to know that smoke usually means fire, and I see a whole lot of smoke surrounding this crash.
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