Sebastopol man ID’d as driver in fatal truck crash down mountainside near Ukiah

The Friday incident remains under investigation and it is unclear at this time if alcohol or drugs were a factor.|
KEVIN FIXLER
THE PRESS DEMOCRAT

The CHP has identified the man killed Friday night in a truck crash in a remote, rugged area southwest of Ukiah as Thomas Bendinelli, 30, of Sebastopol.

Bendinelli was headed north on Shepard Lane, a narrow dirt road off Highway 253, when his Toyota Tacoma went off the west side of the roadway for reasons still under investigation. He was ejected from the truck after it overturned multiple times before coming to rest about 350 feet down the steep embankment, according to CHP and Ukiah Valley Fire Capt. John Corippo.

A resident reported hearing what sounded like a crash Friday night but was unable to see anything in the dark. Fire officials hiked down the hill the next day and found the late-1990s pickup truck halfway down the mountain in an oak-studded grassland.

The investigation is ongoing, and it is not yet known whether alcohol or drugs were a factor in the crash.

- Kevin Fixler

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