Skydiver killed in big rig crash on Highway 99 in Lodi area
A skydiver was killed Thursday after she strayed off course and hit a big rig on southbound Highway 99 in the Lodi area, authorities said.
The accident happened around 2:15 p.m. near Jahant Road, according to the California Highway Patrol's Stockton office.
CHP said the skydiver was a 28-year-old woman from Colombia. She was skydiving in a group of seven people when she was blown off course and hit the big rig, officials said.
After hitting the big rig, she collided with the shoulder of southbound Highway 99. CHP said she was pronounced dead at the scene.
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The other six people in her group landed safely, CHP said.
The skydiver took off from the Lodi Parachute Center before hitting the big rig, according to the San Joaquin County Sheriff's Office.
KCRA 3 spoke to a woman who said her father and brother were traveling northbound on Highway 99 and witnessed the accident.
“They’re really traumatized by what they saw right now, and my dad said he never wants to see anything like that again," said Lisa Reyes.
"The way the person was struggling, just struggling against the wind and their body was just moving really, really fast. That’s what really kind of got (to) him,” she added.
Rick Costa hauls cars throughout the state for work. He said he has seen several skydivers over the freeway through the years
“I never thought it was very safe,” Costa said. “The way they do it, they actually fly over the freeway and come back to grass when they land.”
“Unless they change something, it’s only a matter of time before more and more of that happens and more people die,” he added.
Both CHP and the Federal Aviation Administration are investigating the accident.
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The Skydive Lodi Parachute Center is located at 23597 Frontage Road 99, which runs parallel to Highway 99. The business has been in this location since 1964 and uses an empty field near Frontage Road 99 and Jahant Road as a landing zone.
Thursday’s death is the latest in a series of fatalities and violations at the Lodi Parachute Center.
From 1999 to 2018, 16 people died jumping from planes that took off from the parachute center. The most recent death before Thursday was on Oct. 14, 2018, when a woman’s parachute failed to open during a jump.