Skydiver Killed By Big Rig On Highway 99 Went 'Too Far Downwind'
ACAMPO (CBS SF) -- An experienced skydiver who was killed when she crashed into the back of a big rig on Highway 99 near Acampo went "too far downwind" to avoid the busy freeway, the owner of the jump center said Friday.
Bill Dause, the owner of the Skydive Lodi Parachute Center, identified the skydiver only as Maria, an experienced skydiver with 155 jumps, as he met with reporters.
"We have jumped in winds much higher," Dause said. "Everybody else on the load (those who jumped with the woman) landed in the right place. For whatever reason, she just went too far downwind."
The woman suffered fatal injuries after she struck a truck-trailer combo Thursday afternoon as she was descending. After she hit the truck, she hit the roadway across the street from the parachute center.
Her death remains under investigation.
"She made a downwind run over the freeway when it was a little bit gusty, a little bit windy -- well within the limits of her experience," Dause said. "(She) wasn't able to make it back off of the freeway. Why she went that far downwind, nobody knows. It's a decision that she made."
Dause said wind was fairly common in the area around the center. Maria was one of 16 jumpers on Thursday.
"It's nothing that she hadn't experienced before," he said "The wind was definitely a factor, but it was her decision. Everyone else landed on the airport. She had been here on numerous other occasions."
"She had literally made a run downwind over the freeway. Everyone else stopped long before the freeway," he added.
Dause said the woman had made "20 some jumps" at the airport over the last two weeks. The facility is popular with Bay Area skydivers and located next to Highway 99.
Of the thousands of jumps made at the airport over the years, Dause said, only three other skydivers have landed on the highway.
"Fortunately other than bumps and bruises, none of them got hurt," he told reporters. "None of them got hit by a car or truck."
Dause said an examination of the woman's parachute did not find any issues.
"The parachute was fine," he said.