News

Twenty-year-old Samoa resident Dillon Arcani died Monday evening after crashing his motorcycle, at high speed, into another motorist on State Route 255. According to the California Highway Patrol, Arcani had been fleeing a Humboldt County Sheriff’s deputy near the Samoa Cookhouse after the deputy attempted to pull Arcani over because  there was no license plate on his 2011 Suzuki GSXR 1000 motorcycle.

“When the red lights and siren came on, the motorcyclist fled northbound on SR-255 toward Manila and Arcata, reaching speeds in excess of 100 mph,” says the CHP news release. “The deputy lost sight of the motorcycle and discontinued the pursuit. However, one minute later, the deputy came around a curve on SR-255 at Dean Street/Pacific Avenue in Manila and found that the motorcycle had collided with a 2008 Toyota Scion driven by 17-year-old Elizabeth Jackson of Eureka.”

Jackson had been in the northbound lane, making a left turn at the intersection, says the release. Arcani tried to pass her “by driving to the left of the double yellow lines.”

The motorcycle slammed into the left side of Jackson’s Toyota. Jackson sustained a “very minor injury,” says the release.

Arcani sustained major injuries, was taken to St. Joseph's Hospital in Eureka, where he later died.

The CHP is investigating whether DUI was a factor in the collision. The Humboldt County Sheriff's Office is conducting a criminal investigation of the pursuit.