CHP Motorcycle Officer ID’d In Friday Double-Fatal Fairfield Interstate-80 Crash

FAIRFIELD, CA. (THECOUNT) — California Highway Patrol motorcycle officer, Kirk Griess, has been identified as the man struck and killed by a pickup-truck driver during a traffic stop along Interstate 80 in Fairfield on Friday morning.

Griess, 46, who served in the Marine Corps, was a father of three and was a 19-year CHP veteran out of the department’s Solano office.

The wreck happened shortly after 9 a.m. as Griess conducted an enforcement stop on a gray Saturn sport utility vehicle in westbound lanes of the interstate near Manuel Campos Parkway, officials said.

The other victim was identified as 49-year-old Vallejo resident Jaime Bueza Manuel, CHP officials said.

For an unknown reason, the driver of a white 3/4-ton Chevy pickup truck veered onto the right shoulder and hit Griess and the Saturn, the CHP said. The driver who plowed into the men was being treated at a local hospital, where he was being interviewed and was cooperating with investigators, CHP officials said. He was not identified. source

Investigators have not determined what caused the driver to crash into the men. He was not under arrest, the CHP said.