Crime & Safety
Victim ID'd In Landslide-Fatal Crash On Hwy 121
The embankment's instability created difficulty retrieving the vehicle and the 22-year-old who died at the scene, CHP said.
NAPA COUNTY, CA – The Napa County Sheriff's Office has identified the driver who died when a mudslide swept his vehicle down an embankment and into a tree off state Highway 121 Tuesday evening as Hernan Reyes-Aguires, 22, of Fairfield.
Reyes-Aguires was on his way home from visiting family in Napa when a boulder weighing several tons struck the driver's side of his vehicle and knocked it approximately 100 feet down an embankment, sheriff's Capt. Steve Blower said.
The slide occurred on Monticello Road/state Highway 121 between Wild Horse Valley Road and Wooden Valley Road, Blower said.
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Reyes-Aguires was pronounced dead at the scene and he remained in the vehicle overnight because the slide area was too unstable to free him or raise the vehicle up the embankment, Blower said.
A tow truck responded around mid-morning today, and the road was closed until around 1 p.m., according to the California Highway Patrol.
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PREVIOUS: WEDNESDAY, JAN. 10, 3:41 p.m.
State Highway 121 in rural Napa County east of Napa has reopened following a fatal vehicle crash caused by a landslide Tuesday evening, Caltrans officials said.
The landslide that pushed a vehicle 100 feet down an embankment and into a tree was reported around 5 p.m. Tuesday, according to the California Highway Patrol.
The name of the victim who died has not yet been released.
The highway was closed in an area between Wild Horse Valley Road and Vichy Avenue. It reopened around 1 p.m. today, CHP officials said.
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PREVIOUS: WEDNESDAY, JAN. 10, 9:10 a.m.
A landslide that occurred Tuesday evening along State Highway 121 in unincorporated Napa County reportedly caused a vehicle crash that killed one person, California Highway Patrol officials said.
The incident was reported at just after 5 p.m. near State Highway 121, also known as Monticello Road, and Wild Horse Valley Road.
The crash involved a vehicle that went down an embankment and struck a tree, according to the CHP.
"The hill is too unstable to retrieve the vehicle and driver," CHP officials said on social media.
Highway 121 was closed in both directions between Vichy Avenue and Wooden Valley Road and CHP officials estimated the highway would not reopen until sometime Wednesday morning. Drivers were asked to use alternate routes.
-- Bay City News/Shutterstock image
