SCOTTS VALLEY — A Monterey County man previously reported missing was killed in a car crash along Highway 17, according to the California Highway Patrol.
At about 3:35 p.m. Monday, officers with the CHP responded to a crash in the southbound direction of the busy highway south of Vine Hill Road near Scotts Valley. Sixty-year-old Robert William Richards from Moss Landing was driving southbound in a red 1990 Mazda Miata at an undetermined speed when, for unknown reasons, his car traveled off the roadway and down an embankment before crashing into a tree on the west side of the highway.
As a result of the crash, the man sustained major injuries and was pronounced dead at the scene, according to a CHP release.
While the cause of the crash is still under investigation, investigators later confirmed that the decedent was a missing person who had been reported to authorities Jan. 22. Law enforcement officials, as of Tuesday, still did not know exactly when the crash occurred, but determined it must have been sometime between Jan. 21 and Monday.
It is unknown if alcohol and/or drugs were factors in the crash, according to the release. Anyone with potentially helpful information is asked to call CHP dispatch at 831-796-2160.
Lt. Grant Boles, serving as acting commander of the CHP’s Santa Cruz unit, stated in the release that seat belts save lives and prevent injuries.
“Do not put your own life at risk, or the life of your family or friends. Buckle up,” the release noted.
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