Fresno, CA, November 6 – A 51-year-old Fresno man died after his motorcycle collided with a pickup truck towing a livestock trailer on Parkway Drive near Herndon Avenue Wednesday evening, according to the California Highway Patrol. The crash happened just before 7 p.m. on November 4 as the truck was leaving a nearby gas station. The motorcyclist was later identified by Fresno police as Mathew Gibson. The truck driver was not injured, CHP said.
Fresno Motorcyclist Identified After Fatal Crash With Pickup Towing Livestock Trailer
According to CHP, the crash occurred on Parkway Drive just north of Herndon Avenue around 6:50 p.m. The agency said a Dodge Ram flatbed pickup towing a 28-foot livestock trailer was pulling out of an EZ Trip gas station and turned left onto southbound Parkway Drive. Gibson, who was riding a Yamaha R6 motorcycle north on Parkway Drive, crashed into the left side of the truck, according to CHP.
Gibson was wearing a helmet at the time of the crash and was pronounced dead at the scene, CHP said. His identity was not released in the initial CHP report. Fresno police later identified him as 51-year-old Mathew Gibson. Police said the truck driver was not hurt and remained at the scene after the collision.
CHP said alcohol and drugs did not appear to be contributing factors in the crash. The agency said its investigation into the collision is continuing, and no further findings have been released so far. Beyond confirming Gibson’s identity, Fresno police have not issued additional details about the crash or its cause.
Several details have not been made public. Neither CHP nor Fresno police have said whether any citations are expected as a result of the crash. The precise cause of the collision beyond the sequence of events described in the report has not been further explained. No additional information about Gibson has been released beyond his name and age.
Lane splitting, and what the Vehicle Code actually says
Vehicle Code section 21658.1 defines lane splitting and authorizes the California Highway Patrol to develop educational guidelines for it. What matters after a crash is the distinction the section draws: lane splitting is not prohibited in California, and not prohibited is not the same thing as legal.
The practical effect is that a rider who was lane splitting has not broken a rule by doing so, and an insurer that treats lane splitting as automatic fault is asserting something the statute does not say. Fault still turns on how each party behaved, the same as in any other collision.
The deadline that applies to a claim like this one
Code of Civil Procedure section 335.1 gives two years for an action for injury to, or for the death of, an individual caused by the wrongful act or neglect of another. The same two years covers an injury claim and a death claim; there is no separate, shorter period because someone died.
Who is entitled to bring a claim when someone is killed
Code of Civil Procedure section 377.60 decides who may bring a wrongful death action. The first group is the surviving spouse, domestic partner, children and the issue of deceased children, or, where there is no surviving issue, whoever would take the estate by intestate succession.
A second group may bring the action only if they were financially dependent on the person who died: a putative spouse and their children, stepchildren, parents, and the legal guardians of the person who died where the parents are deceased. Parents are in that second group, which is the part families are most often surprised by, because dependency has to be shown rather than assumed.
Talking to someone about it
Culver Legal represents people injured in collisions across California. A conversation about what happened costs nothing, and we work on a contingency fee, which means there is no fee unless we win. If we do not win, we do not pass the case costs on to you either.
Nothing on this page is legal advice about any particular case, and the facts of a reported collision often change as the investigation continues.
