ROLLOVER ACCIDENT: CHP employee killed in rollover crash

June 4, 2010

Chico – A custodian for the Chico office of the California Highway Patrol died Thursday morning after his vehicle rolled over along Highway 32, west of lower Humboldt Road.

According to CHP officer Justin Maxey, Jason Scott Tourville, 36, was on duty that morning but was called away due to a problem at his home in Forest Ranch. Investigations show that while running at 65 mph, Tourville’s gold 1990 Nissan Sentra slowly drifted to the right shoulder of the highway on a curve.

Tourville overcorrected and jerked the car to the left. It went over the westbound lane and toppled over at least three times.

Tourville was ejected out of the car when the driver’s side door opened during the rollover. Maxey said that the victim had shoulder belts on but wasn’t wearing a lap belt, which caused Tourville to slide underneath.

Nick Alzano, a firefighter for CALFIRE, witnessed the accident as he was driving behind the victim. Alzano approached him to help.

Tourville was breathing shallow and had weak pulse. Alzano, along with other civilians, did CPR chest compression on the victim until the paramedics arrived.

They were unable to revive the victim and he was pronounced dead at 10:45 a.m. Highway 32 was shut down in both directions for almost an hour during the investigation.

Tourville had been a custodian for 15 years and was liked by everyone. He is married and has two children.