A woman of about 50 died at the scene on Saturday afternoon, November 7, after her car crossed into oncoming traffic on State Route 113 in Solano County and hit a work truck head-on, the California Highway Patrol said. The crash closed the rural two-lane highway in both directions for more than three hours while officers investigated.
Source: Golden Gate Current (CHP account)
According to the CHP's preliminary account, the woman was driving a white Nissan Altima northbound on Highway 113 when she lost control, crossed into the southbound lanes and crashed into the work truck. She died at the scene. The driver of the work truck was not hurt, the CHP said, and the cause of the crash is still under investigation.
Source: California Highway Patrol incident log
What the first responders found
The CHP incident log for the crash, just south of Binghamton Road, records a head-on collision between a white Nissan sedan and a white work truck, with the work truck blocking the southbound lane and the Nissan on the left-hand shoulder. The log notes airbags deployed in both vehicles, one person unconscious and responders at first unable to open the Nissan's driver door. Solano County Sheriff's deputies and fire and medical crews were sent to the scene alongside CHP officers.
The CHP has not released the woman's name in the reports published so far. In fatal crashes in California, a victim's identity is normally released by the county coroner's office after the family has been notified, and no release had been reported as of Sunday, November 8.
A SigAlert issued at 5:14 p.m. closed State Route 113 in both directions just south of Binghamton Road, with no estimated reopening time given and drivers told to use alternate routes. The CHP log records a hard closure of the stretch between Fry Road and Hastings Road, and the roadway was reported clear at 8:37 p.m.
A rural two-lane corridor between Dixon and the Delta
State Route 113 is a mostly rural, two-lane highway running through farmland in Solano County, linking the Dixon and Vacaville area with Woodland to the north and the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta country to the south. On two-lane stretches like the Binghamton Road area there is no physical barrier between opposing traffic, so a vehicle that drifts or loses control across the centre line leaves oncoming drivers almost no time or space to react — the pattern the CHP's preliminary account describes here.
The corridor carries local farm and work traffic, school and commuter trips between Dixon, Vacaville and Rio Vista, and drivers connecting between Interstate 80 and the Delta. Solano County sits on the working route between Sacramento, the Central Valley and the Bay Area, a corridor travelled daily by Punjabi and South Asian truck drivers and farm families based around Sacramento, Yuba City and the East Bay; a full evening closure on SR-113 pushes that traffic onto smaller county roads with few alternatives.
What happens next
The California Highway Patrol's investigation into why the Altima lost control and crossed into the southbound lanes remains open. Investigators will work through the vehicles, the roadway and any witness accounts before settling on a cause, and the Solano County coroner is expected to release the woman's name once her family has been notified. No charges or citations arise from the facts released so far — the truck driver was unhurt and, on the CHP's preliminary account, was travelling in his own lane when the Nissan crossed into it.