Residents complained of a two-hour crawl on Monday, Sept. 3 as they attempted to return to Oakdale via Sonora on Highway 120/108 at the end of a long Labor Day weekend.
However, aside from a clogged traffic artery, according to law enforcement, it was a relatively mild holiday weekend that is typically considered one that people use to let loose and party.
Another high point, said Admin Sgt. Kerri Redd, of the Oakdale Police Department, was that there were no holiday-related traffic collisions in this area.
“Aside from the traffic, which was crazy, it was a pretty normal weekend,” Redd said.
It was a maximum enforcement period, MEP, for California Highway Patrol as well as an Avoid the 12 weekend with all valley law enforcement combining resources to curtail drunk driving.
There were only four DUI arrests throughout the long weekend for Oakdale and there were plenty of traffic officers patrolling the streets on Monday, Sept. 3.
“We had a heavy presence on Monday to catch people as they were coming off the long weekend,” Redd said.
A 1-year-old girl died in a traffic collision involving her family when they were traveling to Turlock Lake. According to the California Highway Patrol, the 22-year-old mother lost control of her Honda Civic, hit an embankment, flipped and rolled into a canal on Lake Road, east of Hawkins Road. Bystanders pulled the mother and the child from the submerged vehicle and began cardiopulmonary resuscitation until rescue personnel arrived.
The woman suffered major injuries and was taken to Memorial Hospital, while the child was taken to Oak Valley Hospital where she later died.
The father, a 22-year-old Modesto man, also suffered moderate injuries and was airlifted to Doctors Medical Center in Modesto.
Police reported a few theft-related crimes, nothing out of the ordinary for a usual weekend, which was a welcome relief for law enforcement.
Oakdale enjoyed a quiet weekend, however, the city of Patterson reported a homicide in the wee hours of the morning on Monday and a man was arrested in Waterford for a stabbing incident that injured two men.
Just after 1 a.m. Monday, a resident called 911 reporting that a person had been shot in the 1400 block of Shearwater Drive in Patterson. When deputies arrived they found an adult male in front of a residence with a gunshot wound. He was pronounced dead on the scene. Homicide detectives have taken over the investigation.
The victims in the Waterford incident sustained non-life threatening injuries, however, one was transported to the hospital for treatment and the man responsible arrested.
