USFS hotshot run over, killed by vehicle
By Bill Lindelof , Sacramento Bee
The California Highway Patrol is investigating the death of a U.S. Forest Service firefighter who appears to have been run over by a car filled with his colleagues on a road in Yuba County over the weekend.
Michael Patrick Kelly II, 32, who served as a squad boss on the Tahoe Hotshots Crew, died about 1:10 a.m. Saturday after being hit on Marysville Road, west of Old Toll Road, not far from Camptonville, the small town where the crew is based, about 36 miles northeast of Marysville.
“This is a tragic loss for Mike’s family, for Tahoe National Forest and for the firefighting community,” said Tahoe Forest Supervisor Tom Quinn in a statement.
A news release from the CHP states that the crash occurred when seven members of the “hot shots” crew were in a 2002 Hyundai Accent sedan traveling westbound on Marysville Road.
At the same time, another vehicle was traveling eastbound toward the crowded Hyundai. The driver of that car saw a pedestrian lying down in the westbound lane.
The driver came to a stop and tried to alert the oncoming Hyundai by flashing the vehicles’s high-beam headlights. The Hyundai, driven by firefighter Andrew Gruenberg, 26, did not stop and ran over Kelly, the CHP statement said.
Lying in the roadway at 1:10 AM. What’s wrong with this picture? Also, 7 people jammed in a Hyundai Accent makes for a cozy ride.
A terrible tragedy.