Flipped motor home leads to drug arrest

The driver of a motor home that flipped onto its side and collided with a tow truck on eastbound interstate 80 in Berkeley on Sunday morning was wanted on a no-bail warrant on drug charges in San Francisco, a California Highway Patrol spokesman said today.

Laron Presley, 46, of Fremont, was arrested after the collision at about 5:30 a.m. Sunday that temporarily blocked all lanes of eastbound I-80 in the vicinity of the Gilman Street exit, CHP spokesman Sean Wilkenfeld said.

Presley was driving a 1976 Dodge motor home between 20 and 25 feet long that had stopped on I-80 and was struck by a tow truck, according to Wilkenfield. Authorities are trying to figure out why Presley had stopped the motor home, he said.

The impact of the collision caused the tow truck, which was carrying a car, to jackknife and it came to rest on an embankment separating the highway from the Gilman Street off-ramp, Wilkenfield said.

A third vehicle, a 2006 Isuzu, also was involved in the collision, according to Wilkenfield. The tow truck driver, Presley and a passenger in his motor home and the Isuzu driver all suffered minor injuries in the collision, Wilkenfield said.

The accident is still under investigation but at this point there’s no indication that drugs or alcohol played a role, according to Wilkenfield.

The far right lanes of eastbound I-80 and the Gilman Street off-ramp remained closed for almost four hours on Sunday morning while debris was removed from the roadway and officers investigated the collision, Wilkenfield said.

Presley is being held at an Alameda County Jail and will be transferred to San Francisco authorities soon, Wilkenfeld said.

— Jeff Shuttleworth, Bay City News