Updated April 29 with identification
A man was fatally run over by his own pickup truck when he leaned out of the driver’s seat to try to flip the charging port door closed, the California Highway Patrol said.
The accident was reported at 8:43 a.m. Thursday, April 25, near the Tuolumne County community of Moccasin.
The 68-year-old Groveland man, driving a 2023 Ford F-150 Lightning electric truck, stopped at the intersection of Highway 120 and the bottom of Old Priest Grade because he had noticed the charging port was open, the CHP said.
He “partially exited” the truck, opening the door and leaning to reach the port on the left front quarter-panel, according to the account of the driver behind him. When the truck started rolling toward the right edge of the highway, the man, with one foot on the ground, grabbed the steering wheel and pulled it to the left as he tried to climb back into the driver’s seat.
“At some point he fell completely out of the vehicle, and the vehicle drove over him,” CHP Sgt. Randy Matyshock told the Union Democrat.
The truck rolled across both lanes of Highway 120, down an embankment and onto Moccasin Switchback Road. It went through some fences before coming to rest.
The man was declared dead at the scene. As of Thursday evening, his name had not been released.
On Friday, April 26, the CHP identified him as Gordon Ralph Glasson. Before moving to Groveland, he spent most of his life on the San Francisco Peninsula, and until 2017 he worked as a carpenter for Redwood City schools.
