Did not realize he died so young.
Part of me wonders if the cop who ticketed them was an act of God or an angel, trying to warn them before the tragedy.
"
At 3:30 p.m, Dean was stopped by California Highway Patrol officer Otie V. Hunter at Mettler Station, south of Bakersfield, for driving 65 mph (105 km/h) in a 55 mph (89 km/h) zone.[7][8] Hickman, following the Spyder in the Ford Country Squire with the trailer, was also ticketed for driving 20 mph (32 km/h) over the limit, as the speed limit for vehicles towing a trailer was 45 mph (72 km/h). After receiving the citations, Dean and Hickman headed west onto [SR 166](California State Route 166 - Wikipedia)/SR 33 to avoid Bakersfield’s slow 25 mph (40 km/h) downtown district. SR 166/SR 33 was a known shortcut for sports car drivers traveling to Salinas, called “the racer’s road”, which led to Blackwells Corner at US 466 (later SR 46). However, Dean biographer and expert Warren Beath disagrees with this account, citing Wütherich’s inquest deposition stating that they had driven through Bakersfield and turned left on US 466. Beath, who lives in Bakersfield, emphasizes that SR 99 does not traverse downtown Bakersfield but instead skirts the city on the east side. In Hunter’s testimony, he stated that Dean continued on to Bakersfield.
At Blackwells Corner, Dean stopped briefly for refreshments and met fellow racers Lance Reventlow and Bruce Kessler, who were also driving to Salinas in Reventlow’s Mercedes-Benz 300 SL coupe. As Reventlow and Kessler were leaving, they and Dean’s group agreed to meet for dinner in Paso Robles.[9]
At approximately 5:15 p.m., Dean and Hickman left Blackwells Corner, driving west on US 466 toward Paso Robles, approximately 60 miles (97 km) away. Dean accelerated in the Spyder and left the Ford station wagon far behind. Further along on US 466, Dean crested Polonio Pass and headed down the long Antelope Grade, passing cars along the way toward the junction of US 466 and SR 41.
At approximately 5:45 p.m., a two-tone black and white 1950 Ford Tudor was headed east on US 466, just west of the junction near Shandon.[10][11] Its driver, 23-year-old Navy veteran and Cal Poly student Donald Turnupseed,[12][13][14] turned left onto SR 41 headed north toward Fresno. As Turnupseed’s Ford crossed the center line, Dean—clearly recognizing the imminent crash—tried to steer the Spyder in a “side-stepping” racing maneuver, but with insufficient time and space, the two cars collided almost head-on. Witness John Robert White reported that the Spyder smashed into the ground two or three times in cartwheels[15] and landed in a gully beside the shoulder of the road, northwest of the junction. The velocity of the impact sent the much heavier Ford broad-sliding 39 feet (12 m) down US 466 in the opposing lane.[16] The collision was witnessed by several people who stopped to help. A woman with nursing experience attended to Dean and detected a weak pulse in his neck.[17]
California Highway Patrol (CHP) captain Ernest Tripke and corporal Ronald Nelson were called to the scene.[18] Before Tripke and Nelson arrived, Dean had been extricated from the Spyder’s mangled wreckage, his left foot having been crushed between the clutch pedal and the brake pedal. He was critically injured because his vehicle had absorbed the brunt of the crash, and he suffered a broken neck and massive internal and external injuries. Hickman and Roth arrived at the scene approximately ten minutes after the crash, and Hickman assisted in the extrication of Dean from the wreckage. Nelson witnessed Dean, unconscious and dying, as he was placed into an ambulance and Wütherich, who had been thrown from the Spyder, lying nearly unconscious on the shoulder of the road next to the wrecked vehicle.
Dean and Wütherich were taken in the same ambulance to the Paso Robles War Memorial Hospital, 28 miles (45 km) away. Dean was pronounced dead on arrival at 6:20 p.m. by the attending emergency room physician, Dr. Robert Bossert. The cause of death listed on Dean’s death certificate is listed as a broken neck, multiple fractures of the upper and lower jaw, both arms broken and internal injuries.[19] Beath wrote that Dean had died in the arms of his friend Hickman.[20] Despite reports that Dean had been driving approximately 85 mph (137 km/h), Nelson estimated that the actual speed was around 55 mph (89 km/h) based on the wreckage and the position of Dean’s body.[18]"