CHP investigates fatal crash

A bizarre accident has taken another life on Lakeville Highway after a pizza oven came loose from the vehicle towing it and smashed into a stopped car.

The incident occurred at around 7:20 p.m. Friday, as a 1997 Honda Accord driven by Dwayne Usher, a 32-year-old father of two from Vallejo – and occupied by another man in the passenger seat and Usher’s two sons in the back seat – sat at the intersection of Lakeville Highway and Old Lakeville Road No. 3 waiting for a green light.

At that time, a 1997 Chevrolet van was headed northbound on Lakeville Highway while towing a mobile pizza oven on a trailer, according to the California Highway Patrol. For reasons that have not yet been determined, the trailer became unhitched from the van and broadsided the Honda.

First responders arrived on the scene to find the silver Honda turned onto its right side, with the other side caved in from the impact. Usher was pronounced dead at the scene.

The other front passenger in the Honda, 34-year-old Ariel Motta, sustained major injuries and was taken to Santa Rosa Memorial Hospital, the CHP said. The two boys in the back, 8-year-old Devin Usher and 4-year-old Anthony Usher, sustained minor injuries and were taken to Children’s Hospital Oakland and Santa Rosa Memorial Hospital, respectively.

No other injuries were reported. Photographs from the scene show the white Chevy van parked and undamaged, except for a broken hitch on the back.

The California Highway Patrol’s MAIT investigators are now looking into why the trailer became disconnected from the van. The trailer was impounded pending the investigation, according to the California Highway Patrol.

The oven was owned by local restaurant chain Rosso Pizzeria, and was being towed by 46-year-old Petaluma resident Edward Jacobson as he returned from an event Friday evening, according to company owner Kevin Cronin in remarks made to the Santa Rosa Press Democrat.

Cronin said the company was “devastated” by what had happened.

The last fatality on Lakeville Highway occurred June 7 when 25-year-old Jesse Cockrill of Petaluma lost control of his vehicle and crashed head-on into a car driven by 65-year-old Betty Osotonu of Vallejo. Osotonu was killed, and Cockrill sustained critical injuries. An 8-year-old girl in the back of Osotonu’s car sustained minor injuries.

Authorities suspected Cockrill of driving while intoxicated at the time. He was arrested after his release from the hospital, and currently faces criminal charges.

(Contact Don Frances at don.frances@arguscourier.com)