SANTA CRUZ—The 27-year-old Watsonville man who died March 25 after a four-vehicle crash on Highway 1 in Santa Cruz has been identified as Cameron Olsen.
According to California Highway Patrol officer Alyssa Gutierrez, a 77-year-old Moss Landing man was driving south on Highway 1 at 4:30pm in a 2002 Chevrolet Avalanche. For unknown reasons his vehicle smashed into a 2018 Honda Civic driven by Olsen. The Civic then crashed into a 2016 Toyota Corolla driven by a 29-year-old man with a 26-year-old female passenger, both of Sacramento.
Olsen, who Guriterrez said was wearing a seatbelt, was flown by CALSTAR air ambulance, out of Watsonville Municipal Airport, to an out of county trauma center where he later died.
Gutierrez said the Avalanche also struck a Chevrolet Impala driven by a 27-year-old Aptos man.
While the Moss Landing man suffered moderate injuries, the man and woman in the Toyota suffered minor injuries.
Drugs or alcohol do not appear to have played a role in the incident, Gutierrez said.
The rear end of the Civic was entirely caved in by the impact. The Toyota also sustained major damage.
The Impala driver was not injured.
The crash forced the CHP to shut down all lanes of southbound traffic on Highway 1 for close to an hour. Rush hour traffic quickly backed up north into Santa Cruz, and up Highway 17. The highway was covered with car parts and shattered glass and scrawled with a web of heavy black skid marks at the crash site.
The incident is still under investigation.