UPDATES TO IDENTIFY MOTORCYCLE RIDER KILLED
A Yucca Valley motorcycle rider was killed Saturday evening in a crash in Yucca Valley, at the same location where another motorcycle rider was killed in January. About 8:15 p.m., a silver SUV traveling westbound on Highway 62 attempted a left-hand turn into the AM/PM gas station driveway, just east of Balsa Avenue, directly in front of a 50-year-old motorcycle rider who was traveling eastbound on the highway. The motorcycle rider, identified by a family member as Chad Smithling, a father of three girls, broadsided the car and was thrown from the bike. County Fire Battalion Chief Scott Tuttle said that Yucca Valley paramedics pronounced Chad Smithling deceased at the scene. The Sheriff’s department is investigating. That dangerous intersection is no stranger to tragedy, Town Councilman Merl Abel said the town has asked Caltrans, who has jurisdiction on the State Highway, repeatedly, to put in a median or highway delineators there and have been turned down. On January 1, a car leaving the AM/PM gas station eastbound on the highway made a U-turn, and Benjamin Lawrenson, 21, T-boned the vehicle with his motorcycle. Lawrenson died at Hi-Desert Medical Center and his female passenger was injured.
https://www.gofundme.com/in-loving-memory-of-great-man
https://www.gofundme.com/bensride2018
Highway 62 in front of the AM/PM gas station has a pair of solid double yellow lines. According to the California DMV, “Two sets of solid double yellow lines spaced 2 feet or more apart are considered a barrier. Do not drive on or over this barrier, make a left turn, or a U-turn across it, except at designated openings.”
