At about 6:21 am Friday morning, the California Highway Patrol, Turlock Fire Department, and American Medical Response were dispatched to a reported vehicle collision with injuries southbound State Route 99 at Fulkerth Road, Turlock.

When crews arrived on scene, they found a single vehicle involved, a Chevrolet SUV just west of the freeway on-ramp.

The vehicle had a single occupant, a 54 year old man of Hughson, who was not wearing his seatbelt at the time of the collision and had been ejected. The man was pinned underneath the vehicle and had suffered major injuries which he had succumbed to prior to crews’ arrival. His identity has yet to be released.

The vehicle sustained major damage and was deemed inoperable as a result of the collision, requiring it to be towed away.

Officers began investigating, and the preliminary stages of their investigation indicate that the man had been traveling southbound in the right lane of the freeway at an unknown speed approaching Fulkerth Road, when for an unknown reason, he allowed his vehicle to drift into the middle lane. The man then turned his vehicle sharply to the right. The vehicle proceeded in a southwesterly direction, crossing over the right lane and eventually leaving the freeway. The vehicle overturned several times and came to final rest on its wheels just west of the freeway on-ramp on top of the man who had been ejected at some point because he was not wearing his seatbelt.

It’s currently unclear whether or not alcohol or drugs played a factor in this collision.

The investigation remains on-going. Anyone with information that could assist in the investigation is encouraged to call California Highway Patrol Officer Brandon Whittemore at 209-545-7440.