Stacy Wiley Obituary, Death – On January 11, 2023, at about 3:30 p.m., the Merced Communication Center (MCC) got a report of a head-on crash with injuries near SR-165 south of Westside Boulevard. Several cars were involved in the crash. At the time this happened, it was raining hard and the roads were wet. When officers from the Merced Area of the California Highway Patrol (CHP) got to the scene, they saw that two cars had crashed into each other head-on and that many people were seriously hurt.
The Merced County Coroner’s Office found out that the driver of the Dodge, a 44-year-old woman from Los Banos named Stacy Wiley who was born on April 12, 1978, had been taken by air-med to Doctor’s Medical Center in Modesto, California. After the accident, she was taken to the hospital, where she was treated for her injuries. However, she was later pronounced dead.
An initial investigation showed that a 17-year-old woman from Los Banos, California, was driving north on SR-165, south of Westside Boulevard, in a 2003 Honda Accord at an undetermined speed. The 44-year-old man from Los Banos, California, was driving south on State Route 165, just south of Westside Boulevard, in a 2010 Dodge Caliber at a speed that was not known. At the time, the Honda’s 17-year-old female driver couldn’t keep control of the car, so she let it make a U-turn onto the southbound lane of SR-165, right in front of the oncoming Dodge Caliber. We don’t know what happened in this situation. In the southbound lane of SR-165, just south of Westside Boulevard, there was an accident that involved both cars. The force of the first hit tipped over the Dodge’s driver’s seat.
Because of the accident, both the person driving the Honda and Isaac Loretto, who was in the back seat, were seriously hurt. Heidi Garcia, from Los Banos, was in the front seat of the Honda as a passenger. She got minor injuries, but she didn’t go to the hospital. The Honda driver, who was only 17 years old, had serious leg injuries that needed to be treated at Mercy Medical Center in Merced, California. Mr. Loretto was taken to Doctor’s Medical Center by ambulance because he had serious injuries to his head and upper body.
There is no evidence that either drugs or alcohol played a role in this car accident. The investigation into what led to the crash is still going on. The California Highway Patrol would like to take this chance to tell all drivers that when the weather is bad, they should slow down and leave more space between themselves and the car in front of them.