Trinity County officials have released the names of two men who died in separate unrelated crashes, according to the Trinity Journal. On the morning of May 31st the Forest Service and Trinity Center volunteer firefighters responded to a fire on Eastside Road 11 miles east of Highway 3. It took some time to extinguish a brush fire and in the middle of it was a 2003 Toyota pickup truck with a dead man behind the wheel. Eventually he was identified as Manfred Oeltze of Richmond. The release of the information was delayed because Oeltze’s family lives out of the country and it took a while to notify them.
The other crash happened on the evening of June 3rd on Lance Gulch Road. 58-year-old Nicholas P. Wilson of Weaverville was driving a 1974 Chevrolet when he drifted off the roadway and sheared off a small tree, then plowed into a larger tree, which brought the car to a sudden stop. Wilson was not wearing a seatbelt and his chest impacted the steering wheel. Paramedics were treating him at the Douglas City fire hall while waiting for a helicopter to arrive when he was passed away.