Update: Deadly HWY 12 Crash In Calaveras County Led To DUI Arrest

Update at 5:50 p.m.: The name of a Stockton woman killed in a Wednesday morning crash on Highway 12 at the Wards Avenue intersection, south of Camache Reservoir in Wallace, has been released by Calaveras County Coroner Kevin Raggio. 23-year-old Maribel Mendoza was pronounced dead at the scene. She was the passenger in a car where the driver was arrested for DUI. The CHP has also released his name, Raul Barron Jr., from Lodi. He was flown from the scene, suffering major injuries, to a hospital in Sacramento. Further details on the two-vehicle collision can be viewed below.

Original post on 1/19/23 at 2:57 p.,m.: Wallace, CA – A two-vehicle crash yesterday morning on Highway 12 in the Wallace area of Calaveras County left one person dead and a driver arrested for DUI.

The collision happened at 11:44 a.m. on Wednesday at the Wards Avenue intersection, south of Camache Reservoir. The CHP has not identified the driver, a 26-year-old man from Lodi, or his deceased passenger, a 23-year-old Stockton woman, pending family notification.

The unidentified driver was driving a 2001 Ford Taurus eastbound on the highway. CHP spokesperson Eric Parson relayed that, for an unknown reason, the car went off the roadway and then he overcorrected. That sent the vehicle into oncoming traffic, where it broadsided a 1999 Buick Park Avenue driven by 73-year-old Robert Hooe of Stockton.

The unidentified driver was arrested for DUI at the scene and then flown to U.C. Davis Hospital in Sacramento, suffering major injuries. His passenger sustained fatal injuries, and she was pronounced dead at the scene. Hooe suffered minor injuries.