A female skydiver has died tragically after crashing into the highway after colliding with a semi-truck. According to The Daily Mail, the accident occurred on Highway 99 in Lodi, California outside of San Francisco as part of a group dive on Thursday.
According to NBC News, Skydive Lodi Parachute Center owner Bill Dause identified the woman as a 28-year-old named Maria from Colombia. During a press conference on Friday, Dause claimed the woman was “an experienced skydiver” and had over “150 jumps” before Thursday, with several visits to his center.
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Officer Ruben Jones told the media that the woman struck the rear of the semi’s trailer before hitting the right-hand shoulder of the road according to NBC News. She was pronounced dead at the scene.
Meanwhile Francine Turner, whose son Tyler died with his jump instructor from the Lodi center in 2016, is calling for Dause’s business to be shut down. @FOX40
— Doug Johnson (@DougJohnsonFX40) September 27, 2019
Fox 40 reporter Doug Johnson notes on Twitter that Dause has defended his skydiving business for years ahead of Thursday’s tragic incident. It is the seventh death in three years connected to Dause’s business, including the death of 18-year-old Tyler Turner in 2016. Turner’s mother described the moment with the Merced Sun-Star at the time.
“I was watching everybody coming down; they look like little dots and you can’t tell who is who. We didn’t know what color his ‘chute was,” Francine Salazar said to the outlet. “I asked everyone where he was and nobody panicked or anything, we just started looking for him. He went really far off course.”
She also claimed that Dause informed her son and others that they didn’t need to watch a full safety video before their jump, admitting it troubled her. The owner defended against the claim by telling the outlet that he was “pretty sure” the video was watched fully and there were numerous opportunities to finish it.
“It (the video) plays on a continuous loop, it plays continuously, so I’m pretty sure they saw it,” Dause said in a telephone interview at the time. “But, it wouldn’t have made any difference (if they didn’t). It was an unfortunate accident. I know she’s grasping for reasons,” he said, “and we’re just as upset about it as everybody is.”
California skydiver dies after she collides with a semi-trailer truck and rolls onto a busy highway https://t.co/7zbo6tPETm
— Daily Mail US (@DailyMail) September 28, 2019
Eyewitnesses to the accident on Thursday noted that they were “traumatized” by the accident and described what transpired to NBC affiliate KCRA.
“My dad said he never wants to see anything like that again,” a woman who was driving with her brother and father told the outlet. “Their body was just moving really, really fast. That’s what really kind of got (to) him.”
She also said the skydiver was “struggling” against the wind before she crashed. Dause partly blamed the wind for the accident, with NBC News adding that winds were 15 to 20 miles per hour at the time. He added that he wasn’t sure why “she went that far downwind” and that her parachute was working properly. Another issue is reportedly the proximity of the center to the highway, with other divers flying over the highway in past jumps and even landing on the highway without injury.
“Unless they change something, it’s only a matter of time before more and more of that happens and more people die,” NBC News wrote.
Aside from the alarming number of deadly accidents, the skydiving center was also in the news in May 2016 after a plane with 17 skydivers took off and landed upside-down after “clipping a pickup” according to the Merced Sun-Star.
