GRASS VALLEY, Calif. December 8, 2018 – On December 07, 2018, at approximately 7:55 PM, a Gold Toyota Avalon occupied by a single male driver was traveling westbound on SR-20, west of South Ponderosa Way, at a high rate of speed.
The male driver, a 64-year old Penn Valley resident, passed vehicles on the right shoulder, then reentered the westbound lanes. The vehicle then traveled into the eastbound lanes, into oncoming traffic before traveling back into the westbound lanes.
For reasons still under investigation, the vehicle traveled off the north roadway edge and collided with an ascending embankment and a tree. The male driver was transported by Sierra Nevada Ambulance to Sierra Nevada Memorial Hospital where he succumbed to his injuries.
This collision is still under investigation and it is undetermined at this point if alcohol and/or drugs were a factor in the collision.