Men injured after search for family
Two search-and-rescue workers who had been assisting in the recovery of bodies of a Southern California family whose vehicle plunged into a Mendocino County river, killing the parents and both children, suffered major injuries Sunday night in a car crash, officials said.
The driver, Anderson resident Clayton Chaney, was heading south on Highway 101 just south of Leggett around 6:45 p.m. when his 1999 Toyota Tacoma pickup went off the west edge of the road and down an embankment, according to the California Highway Patrol.
The truck hit a guard rail and rolled over onto its roof, officials said. Fire personnel had to extricate Chaney, 36, and his passenger, 49-yearold Corning resident Robert Talbott, from the truck.
They were taken to Howard Memorial Hospital with major injuries, CHP said.
Mendocino County sheriff’s officials said both men are on the Shasta County Sheriff’s Office Search and Rescue team, and they aided in recovery efforts of the Thottaapilly family.
On Monday, authorities found the body of the last member of the Santa Clarita family of four. Nearly two weeks had passed since the vehicle carrying the family — father Sandeep Thottapilly, 41; mother Soumya Thottapilly, 38; son Siddhant, 12; and daughter Saachi, 9 — fell into the Eel River on April 6.
On Sunday, Chaney and Talbott were heading back from the search scene to a command post 10 to 15 miles away when the crash occurred, said Officer William Wunderlich, a CHP spokesman.
Although Chaney tried to correct the path of the pickup before it veered onto the embankment, the Toyota reportedly began to slide in a counterclockwise manner and hit a guard rail.
CHP investigators said the vehicle was traveling at an “unknown rate of speed,” and drugs and alcohol do not appear to have played a role in the crash. Jenna Lyons is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: jlyons@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @JennaJourno