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News & Features
From the Idyllwild Town Crier weekly newspaper, 09.04.08 edition.
Three deaths in holiday collisions
Beth Nottley, News Assistant
The Labor Day weekend brought tragedy to the Hill as three people, two
of whom were local residents, died in three separate traffic collisions
from Friday, Aug. 29 to Tuesday, Sept. 2. All three incidents involved
the driver crossing over the double yellow lines on Highway 74.
At about 1:50 p.m. Friday, Aug. 29, Jerrald Jarvis, 66, of Anza, was
driving his 2002 Harley-Davidson eastbound on Highway 74 west of McCall
Park Road at mile marker 57.75 in Mountain Center when he crossed over
the double yellow lines. Jarvis collided head-on with a box truck
driven by Saul Villa, 29, of Los Angeles. Jarvis was then ejected from
his motorcycle, thrown back into the eastbound lane and struck by a
1992 Jeep Wrangler driven by James White, 59, of Norco.
Jarvis was pronounced dead at the scene but then revived by an
unidentified U.S. Forest Service employee. An American Medical Rescue
ambulance transported him to Hemet Valley Medical Center, but he
ultimately died of injuries at 3:17 p.m.
Both Villa, a driver for the Blue Ice Vodka company, and White escaped
injury.
A day later, another fatality involved a motorcyclist crossing the
double yellow lines just over a mile away from where Friday’s crash
occurred.
At about 9:45 a.m. Saturday, Aug. 30, Christopher Miller, 38, of Santa
Ana, was driving his 2008 Triumph motorcycle eastbound on Highway 74
west of McCall Park Road at mile marker 56.6 in Mountain Center when he
crossed over the double yellow lines into opposing traffic. His
motorcycle hit the right front of a 2007 Toyota Sienna driven westbound
by Paul Kovalchuk, 53, of Hemet. Miller died at the scene; Kovalchuk
was uninjuried.
Idyllwild resident Jayni Bradbury, 61, also died after crossing the
double yellow lines on Highway 74. At about 6 a.m. Tuesday, Sept. 2,
she was driving her 2005 Jeep Wrangler westbound at mile marker 51.50
near the Strawberry Creek Bridge, when, according to a witness, her
vehicle began weaving and then crossed over the solid center lines, ran
off the roadway, went into a ditch and finally collided with a dirt
embankment. The impact caused fatal injuries to Bradbury and she was
transported from the scene by the Riverside County Coroner’s Office.
The cause of Bradbury’s collision is unknown and is being
investigated. The California Highway Patrol requests that anyone with
information regarding this or any of the other crashes, call Public
Affairs Officer Chris Blondon at (951) 769-2000.
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