Search continuing for hit and run driver who fled Mountain Gate collision

December 23, 2021 Trevor Montgomery

MOUNTAIN GATE, Calif., — Frustrated after learning that multiple people witnessed her husband’s SUV being struck by a driver who then fled the scene last Wednesday evening, a Redding woman who turned to social media for information about the hit and run driver spoke with SCNS today about the incident.

Surveillance video that captured multiple angles of the hit and run showed a pickup truck with an ATV in the back fleeing the scene after the collision, which happened at a Mountain Gate Shell gas station and convenience store in the 14000 block of Wonderland Boulevard, near Old Oregon Trail and Interstate 5.

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Contacted for more information regarding her social media plea for information about the hit and run, Sandi Piercy told SCNS that her husband Dean had parked his Kia SUV outside the business for the day and found it damaged after returning around 8:30 p.m.

As it turned out, the hit and run had just occurred about twenty minutes earlier.

“It is very discouraging the way people are changing,” Sandi Piercy of Redding said after learning that multiple people witnessed a Toyota pickup truck crash into her husband’s SUV outside a Mountain Gate gas station before fleeing the scene. “Yet nobody bothered to stop him or even snap a picture of his license plate,” she lamented.

Although video surveillance later obtained by the couple showed the store and parking lot were packed with customers and that several people witnessed the collision, nobody made any attempt to stop the driver from fleeing or notify anyone that Dean’s vehicle had been struck.

Surveillance video showed the driver who hit Dean’s Kia briefly exited his vehicle and checked on the damage caused to the much small SUV before getting back into his truck and driving away from the scene.

The hit and run vehicle has been identified as a black, full-size Toyota TRD 4×4 crew cab, with a blue Yamaha ATV in the back. (See additional photos below.)

“I am truly not only disappointed in the guy that left the scene, I’m also disappointed that there were so many people there at the time it happened. Yet nobody bothered to stop him or even snap a picture of his license plate,” Sandi said of the troubling incident.

“If that’s not bad enough, one man in particular looked directly at the whole thing, turned around and walked into the store as if nothing had happened,” she explained.

“It is very discouraging the way people are changing,” Sandi continued.

Asked what she would want to say to the driver who fled the scene, Sandi replied, “Really, the only thing I’d say is that it was clearly an accident, I can see on the video that it was. But choosing to leave was not.”

Anyone with further information regarding this investigation, or who knows the identity and/or whereabouts of the man who fled the scene, is encouraged to contact CHP – Yreka at (530) 842-0530.

Click any image to open full-size gallery

Sandi Piercy photos

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Contact the writer: [email protected]

Trevor Montgomery, 50, moved in 2017 to the Intermountain area of Shasta County from Riverside County and runs Riverside County News Source (RCNS) and Shasta County News Source (SCNS).

Additionally, he writes or has written for several other news organizations; including Riverside County based newspapers Valley News, Valley Chronicle, Anza Valley Outlook, and Hemet & San Jacinto Chronicle; the Bonsall/Fallbrook Village News in San Diego County; and Mountain Echo in Shasta County. He is also a regular contributor to Thin Blue Line TV and Law Enforcement News Network and has had his stories featured on news stations throughout the Southern California and North State regions.

Trevor spent 10 years in the U.S. Army as an Orthopedic Specialist before joining the Riverside County Sheriff’s Department in 1998. He was medically retired after losing his leg, breaking his back, and suffering both spinal cord and brain injuries in an off-duty accident. (Click here to see segment of Discovery Channel documentary of Trevor’s accident.)

During his time with the sheriff’s department, Trevor worked at several different stations; including Robert Presley Detention Center, Southwest Station in Temecula, Hemet/Valle Vista Station, Ben Clark Public Safety Training Center, and Lake Elsinore Station; along with other locations.

Trevor’s assignments included Corrections, Patrol, DUI Enforcement, Boat and Personal Water-Craft based Lake Patrol, Off-Road Vehicle Enforcement, Problem Oriented Policing Team, and Personnel/Background Investigations. He finished his career while working as a Sex Crimes and Child Abuse Investigator and was a court-designated expert in child abuse and child sex-related crimes.

Trevor has been married for more than 30 years and was a foster parent to more than 60 children over 13 years. He is now an adoptive parent and his “fluid family” includes 13 children and 18 grandchildren.