This story has been updated.
NORTH COAST, Calif. – One person died and three others – two of them from Lake County – were injured in a five-vehicle wreck on Highway 101 near Willits on Thursday.
The California Highway Patrol said the crash occurred at 11:20 a.m. on Highway 101 south of Willits Watershed Road in wet and rainy conditions.
A 63-year-old Willits man died in the crash. Authorities said in a report issued late Thursday night that his identity was not being released pending the notification of family by the Mendocino County Sheriff's Office.
The crash would result in a temporary closure of the highway as the California Highway Patrol and emergency responders worked at the scene.
The report from the CHP's Ukiah area office said that the crash involved five vehicles: a 2003 Mazda, driven by the man who died; a 2008 Ford driven by 44-year-old Kenneth Walters of Eureka; a 2013 Ford driven by 36-year-old Joseph Aldridge of Lakeport, who was accompanied by wife Holly Aldridge, 38; a 2011 Chevy driven by 18-year-old Michael Dillwood of Windsor; and a 2014 Freightliner driven by Citrus Heights resident Jeffrey Smith, 57.
In addition to the fatality, the Aldridges and Dillwood were injured in the wreck, the CHP said.
The CHP said Walters was traveling southbound in the No. 1 lane north of the South Willits overhead and was preparing to overtake a slower moving bus that was traveling southbound in the No. 2 lane.
The Willits driver, also traveling southbound, overtook Walters in the No. 2 lane and made an unsafe lane change in between Walters and the bus. As a result, the left rear of the Willits man's Mazda struck the right front of Walters' vehicle, the CHP said.
As a result, the Mazda rotated counterclockwise and traveled in an easterly direction, into the opposing lanes of traffic and directly into the path of Aldridge, who the CHP said was traveling northbound in the highway's No. 1 lane.
The CHP said the front of Aldridge's Ford struck the right side of the Mazda, with both of those vehicles continuing in a northeasterly direction within the northbound lanes of the highway.
As those two vehicles were coming to a rest, Smith – who was traveling northbound – was unable to avoid a collision and the right front of his Freightliner struck Aldridge's vehicle, the CHP said.
Dillwood, also traveling northbound, steered his vehicle to the right in an effort to avoid a collision with Aldridge and the Willits man's Mazda, and instead struck a guardrail on the east shoulder of Highway 101, the CHP said.
The CHP said the Willits driver's Mazda and Aldridge's Ford caught fire as a result of the crash, with the Willits man dying at the scene.
Joseph Aldridge suffered minor injuries, and the CHP Ukiah office told Lake County News that Holly Aldridge was transported to Santa Rosa Memorial Hospital with minor injuries. Dillwood suffered minor injuries, according to the CHP.
All of the crash victims were wearing their seat belts, the CHP report said.
The CHP said the collision remains under investigation.
Editor's note: The initial report from the CHP did not include information about Holly Aldridge being with her husband during the crash. Lake County News reached out to the agency and subsequently was able to confirm that she was in the vehicle and had received minor injuries.
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Five-vehicle wreck kills one, injures three on Highway 101
- Elizabeth Larson
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