TAFT, Calif. (KERO) — The California Highway Patrol said a motorcyclist was killed Saturday after hitting the back of a tractor trailer while trying to pass a car in Taft.
CHP said officers received reports of a crash shortly before 1:30 a.m. on east Hwy. 119 and Airport Road in Taft.
According to CHP, a 2011 Freightliner tractor trailer was traveling north on Airport Road and was turning left onto Hwy. 119, when a motorcyclist on a 2006 Yamaha hit the back left part of the trailer while trying to pass a car.
Motorcyclist Michael Edward Lopez, 22, of Bakersfield, was thrown off the Yamaha and declared dead at the scene, said CHP. The driver of the tractor trailer was uninjured.
