South Lake Tahoe man injured, Wellington woman killed in Kingsbury Grade collision

Kingsbury Grade was closed for several hours Friday after a collision between a motorhome and a Nissan Pathfinder sent several victims to area hospitals and resulted in the death of one of the drivers.

At 1:30 p.m., the two vehicles collided about 1.5 miles down from the summit on the valley side of the road. One person from each vehicle had to be extricated according to Fire Marshall Eric Guevin of Tahoe Douglas Fire Department.

Care Flight landed at the bottom of Kingsbury Grade to transport the victims.

Three people were flown by Care Flight to Reno hospitals and ground ambulance transported two others. One of those, the female driver of the SUV, succumbed to her injuries at the hospital according to the Nevada Highway Patrol. Her name is being withheld pending notification of next of kin.

South Lake Tahoe City Council candidate and Director of Home Health & Hospice for Barton Health, Jason Collin, was in the motorhome and was one of those transported by the air ambulance to Renown Medical Center in Reno. His condition, and that of the other victims, is unknown at this time.

He was in the rented motorhome on his way to Mammoth for the "Tahoe to Mammoth High Sierra Relay," an event the company he is co-founder of, Epic Tahoe Adventures, was beta testing to see how the participants survived the length, difficulty and logistics, an event he was planning on holding officially in 2017. In the pictures of the collision, the event name and distance could be seen painted on the windows.

Collin told South Tahoe Now Friday morning that there were 12 runners participating in the 181 mile race, with each runner running three legs. The dozen runners started in Heavenly Village, went over Kingsbury and planned to run over Monitor, up past Topaz Lake, out to Wellington, down to Bridgeport, over Conway Summit, along Mono Lake, around June Lake Loop, into Mammoth on the Mammoth Scenic route to land in the Village at Mammoth for Oktoberfest.

"We'll be getting ready in the back lot of Hard Rock at 10:30 a.m., so look for the two RV's," Collins told us where to meet him. "We'll be starting by the fountain in Heavenly Village tomorrow at noon."

It is unknown at this time if the racers continued with the race after the collision.

The Nevada Highway Patrol Major Accident Investigation Team is investigating the accident.