Truck driver in fiery fatal crash with Mercedes SUV has died, coroner says

The driver of a tractor-trailer rig has died days after a collision with a Mercedes sport-utility vehicle west of San Joaquin that killed five occupants of the SUV, the Fresno County Coroner’s Office said Tuesday.

The collision occurred about 9 a.m. Sept. 5 when the eastbound Mercedes apparently was driven through a stop sign and struck by the northbound big rig at Manning Avenue and Highway 33, said CHP officer Steve Schuh. The truck didn’t have a stop sign. The crash caused a fire, and three people died inside the Mercedes, he said.

Schuh said two people were pulled from the Mercedes by Fresno County Sheriff’s deputies as the fire started, but they also died at the scene.

The truck driver, identified as Layne Fletcher, 58, of Dinuba, was airlifted to Community Regional Medical Center in Fresno with major injuries. His rig was carrying gravel, the CHP reported. He died Sunday, Sept. 10, of his injuries, the Fresno County Coroner’s Office said. He was initially identified in news reports as Wayne Fletcher.

The victims in the Mercedes were identified as Narinder Kumar, 55, Surinder Kumar, 63, Deepak Kumar, 49, Vinod Dhammy, 66, and Kuldip Kumar, 64, all of Union City in the Bay Area.

This story was originally published September 12, 2017 at 1:36 PM with the headline "Truck driver in fiery fatal crash with Mercedes SUV has died, coroner says."