Two sheriff’s deputies were killed when their patrol car was struck broadside by a truck at the US 99 and Highway 399 intersection in Greenfield south of Bakersfield.
Deputy Samuel Harold Moore, 27, and Reserve Deputy Robert Paul Grabner, 23, were killed instantly in the collision. Moore, who was driving, and Grabner, who was graduated from the Sheriff’s Reserve academy just a month earlier, were traveling east on Highway 399 and apparently pulled out onto US 99. They made it across the highway between two trucks in the right and center lanes, but were hit by a third truck and trailer traveling south in the left lane. The patrol car was struck on the left side and pushed sideways across the intersection to the center island where it knocked down a signal light pole. It finally came to a stop on the dividing section.
At the time of the crash, Moore, who became a deputy on June 7, 1961, was on a backup call to assist another deputy, but it was not a code 3 call.