Early Tuesday morning, a vehicle overturned and caught fire on southbound Interstate 5 just north of State Route 198 near Coalinga, leaving one person dead.
California Highway Patrol dispatch logs show the incident was reported at 2:21 a.m. as a vehicle on fire in the center divider, with reporting parties noting two occupants out of the vehicle and walking around. The call was initially logged as a car fire and turned over to Cal Fire, which arrived on scene. Logs later noted the vehicle was fully engulfed in flames, and the incident was updated to a fatality at 6:01 a.m., with officers describing it as a solo vehicle fatality. A coroner arrived on scene, and a tow truck was requested for the completely burned vehicle.
CHP units were assigned at 2:23 a.m., with the first arriving at 2:37 a.m. and others on scene by 2:45 a.m. The vehicle was identified as a blue 2004 GMC Yukon with front-end and rear-end damage and only the front license plate remaining.
Units cleared the scene between 5:08 a.m. and 6:01 a.m. Identities of those involved and the cause of the crash were not immediately available.
The CHP recorded the crash at GPS coordinates: 36.257907 -120.246414
Sources:
– CHP CAD incident viewer: https://cad.chp.ca.gov/
