A 20-year-old Imperial man died after his car likely hydroplaned into a box truck on Telegraph Road in the rain Wednesday morning, in a crash that shut down the roadway for four hours.
Benjamin Noelle, 20, of the 1600 block of Morgan Drive in Imperial, died at a local hospital after initially being transported with critical injuries.
Around 7:30 a.m. Wednesday morning, Noelle was the only occupant of a Pontiac Firebird when the car possibly hydroplaned due to the rainy conditions and crossed into the southbound lanes of traffic on Telegraph.
Noelle was heading north and hit the front end of a box truck that was headed south.
The driver of the box truck, a 52-year-old man, and the passenger, a 47-year-old man, remained on the scene and are cooperating with investigators. The driver had a minor injury, and the passenger was uninjured.
