By Larry Judkins
Glenn County Observer
A young Orland man died in a motorcycle crash on Newville Road near Black Butte Lake Sunday evening.
At about 7:58 p.m. on May 18, the Redding Communications Center broadcast a report of a motorcycle vs. tree traffic crash on Newville Road, north of Wackerman Road.
The motorcycle was a 2009 Suzuki GSXR-600. The only occupant of the Suzuki was the driver, identified by the Tehama County Sheriff’s Office as Ranulfo Hernandez Mendez, 21, of Orland.
According to Officer Eric Taylor of the Red Bluff Office of the California Highway Patrol, the driver of the Suzuki was traveling south on Newville Road, north of Wackerman Road, when, for unknown reasons, he failed to negotiate a sweeping right curve in the road.
The Suzuki crossed over the northbound lane and continued in an easterly direction, where it went off the east side of the roadway.
The Suzuki went down a steep embankment and collided into a tree just east of the roadway.
This portion of Newville Road is actually in Tehama County rather than Glenn County, but since Orland volunteers can get there quicker than Tehama County firefighters, the Orland Volunteer Fire Department was asked by CalFire to render mutual aid.
Police scanner broadcasts indicated that Ranulfo Hernandez Mendez was administered CPR, but the life-saving efforts were unsuccessful.
If you have information regarding this crash, please contact the Red Bluff Area CHP office at (530) 737-6746.
At the same time Orland volunteers were responding to this accident, they were also called to another fatality, this one a rollover on Highway 99.
See The Observer story, “Orland man dies on 99”.
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