A Garner Valley ranch owner was killed and her husband suffered major injuries in a weekend traffic collision on Highway 49 near the South Yuba River in Northern California on a clear and warm day.
At about 9 a.m. Sunday, John Mellott, 72, of Mountain Center, was riding his 2001 BMW motorcycle northbound on Highway 49 north of Sun Shadow Circle with his wife, Anita Mellott, 70, riding in the BMW’s sidecar, according to a California Highway Patrol report.
John was traveling at 50 mph and was unable to negotiate a right-hand curve. The motorcycle crossed the double-yellow lines into the southbound traffic where the front of the motorcycle collided head-on with a 1995 Chevy van driven by Wu Fumeei, 44, of Nevada City.
The impact forced John upward into the van’s windshield, then back onto the southbound lane. Anita was thrown forward where her head struck the left front of the van. She suffered blunt-force head trauma and was pronounced dead at the scene.
John suffered major injures and was flown by CalStar to Sutter Roseville Medical Center.
Fumeei and her passenger, Jeff Gotiseman, 50, of Berkeley, were uninjured.
The Mellots, owners of Black Horse Valley Ranch in Garner Valley, have bred Friesian horses there for years.