A pair of motorcycle accidents last week in Amador and Calaveras counties highlighted the streaking contrasts in each community. As Amador County has seen the number and severity of its traffic accidents drop off during the normally hectic summer, Calaveras County roads have been as deadly as ever.
Calaveras' latest fatality came Monday afternoon, when 60-year-old British citizen James Shaw accidentally ran his 2005 Harley Davidson motorcycle off the road on the east side of Highway 49 south of Red Hill Road in San Andreas.
According to the California Highway Patrol's San Andreas unit, Shaw apparently understeered as he entered a right-hand curve in the roadway at 35 to 40 miles per hour. When Shaw's bike left the road, it struck an embankment and ejected its driver, who sustained fatal injuries in the crash.
This is the second fatal traffic accident the county has experienced since Aug. 14, when a 1997 Saturn sedan carrying three Arnold men failed to navigate a sharp left-hand curve at Murphy's Grade Road at a high rate of speed. Driver Kevin Vargson, 20, and passenger Nathan Burch, 20, survived the crash, though Vargson suffered major injuries. A third passenger, a 21-year-old Arnold male whose name hasn't been released, was not wearing his seat belt and was ejected from the car and died at the scene.
Conversely, a 60-year-old Ione man survived a motorcycle accident on Camanche Parkway just west of Lakeview Drive last Thursday with only moderate injuries. Douglas Gianni exited a left-hand curve at about 45 miles per hour and, for unknown reasons, according to the CHP report, left the right side of the roadway, hitting a ditch.
Gianni was ejected from his bike and transported to Sutter Amador Hospital.
San Andreas CHP also responded to a minor injury accident on Highway 4 east of Hunt Road on Aug. 23 involving a 1995 Mack truck that had drifted off the road before being jerked left into the path of an oncoming Ford. Redding resident Joseph Robertson, 48, was unable to bring his Ford to a complete stop before broadsiding 47-year-old Stockton resident Jerry Carlson's truck. Neither man was hurt badly in the collision.
