Stolen car evades police, heads wrong way on Highway 99, triggering fatal Elk Grove crash

One person was killed and two others were seriously injured in a head-on vehicle collision early Thursday after a driver in a stolen car evaded police and headed the wrong way on Highway 99 in Elk Grove.

The fatal crash was reported about 2:40 a.m. on the Stockton Boulevard on-ramp to the Highway 99 southbound lanes, the California Highway Patrol South Sacramento office announced in a news release.

A few minutes before the crash, CHP dispatchers notified patrol officers that the Elk Grove Police Department was chasing a stolen gold Honda Accord on Calvine Road east of Power Inn Road in south Sacramento.

The Police Department then advised that officers had ended their pursuit because the car was heading the wrong way. The stolen car entered Highway 99 at Calvine Road and was heading north in the southbound lanes.

CHP officers headed out to search for the wrong-way car and shortly after received word from dispatchers that a vehicle collision was reported on the southbound Stockton Boulevard on-ramp. The stolen car headed the wrong way up the Stockton Boulevard on-ramp and crashed head-on with a Honda Insight, the CHP reported.

Elk Grove police officers found the head-on crash scene and took the Honda Accord driver, later identified as Jacob McPherson, into custody before the CHP arrived.

A male passenger in the stolen Honda Accord’s right front seat was unresponsive, the CHP said. He was removed from the car, and CHP and Elk Grove police officers began performing CPR on him.

Paramedics from the Sacramento Fire Department arrived and found a pulse on the passenger. The medics took the passenger to a hospital, where he was later pronounced dead. The Sacramento County Coroner’s Office on Friday identified him as Derrick Deion Simpson, 48.

The driver of the Honda Insight was trapped inside the car but was conscious and talking to officers. There were no passengers in that car. The CHP said the Insight driver was freed from the car and taken to a hospital with major but non-life-threatening injuries.

McPherson, 34, of Sacramento, suffered major injuries and was taken to a hospital, according to the CHP.

Elk Grove police officers are investigating the stolen car and vehicle pursuit. The CHP said the Police Department is likely to recommend criminal charges against McPherson that include possessing a stolen vehicle, possessing stolen property and evading police.

CHP officers are investigating the fatal crash and could recommend charges against McPherson of gross vehicular manslaughter and driving under the influence causing injury or death. The CHP said it believed McPherson was driving under the influence of drugs at the time of the crash.