Friday the 13th “Unlucky” For Motorists

Friday the 13th was a unlucky day for drivers on Highway 108. A number of accidents and problems made traffic a real nightmare.

A fatal traffic accident on Highway 108 at Landcaster Road east of Oakdale had traffic tied up for hours.

A Peterbuilt truck loaded with plywood and a Ford passenger car collided just after 12:30 Friday afternoon.

CHP says a woman passenger in the car was killed and the driver John Miller, 50, and a second passenger, John Frank, 50 – both from Modesto – were injured after the car veered into the path of the big rig. The car, a Ford Thunderbird, landed down an embankment on its roof. Name of the woman killed in the crash has not been released.

Driver of the truck, Kenneth McKinzie of Turlock, was not injured.

Both lanes of the highway were reopened to traffic around 3 p.m. yesterday afternoon, but traffic continued to be congested in the area for quite a while.

Around 5:30 p.m. Friday a single vehicle reportedly flipped over on its roof on Highway 108 at “Lovers Leap” and the eastbound lane of the Highway was blocked, according to the California Highway Patrol.

Then just before 6 p.m., a vehicle fire was reported in Jamestown at the 18,000 block of Highway 108. It had traffic snarled for a while as well.