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 The Modesto Bee - April 29, 1991
Merced motorcyclist killed
A Merced man died Sunday afternoon after he drove his Kawasaki ZX6 motorcycle head-on into a Ford pickup about 5 miles south of Coulterville. Gibby Hogan, 21, was driving southbound on Highway 49 at 40-60 mph on the wrong side of the road when he crashed into the pickup, which was traveling 25-30 mph in the 55 mph zone, California Highway Patrol Officer Johnny Hagen of Mariposa said. The accident occurred at 1:40 p.m. Hagen said Hogan was wearing a helmet but suffered fatal head injury when he was thrown into the truck. He was flown by Medi-Flight helicopter to Memorial Medical Center in Modesto but resuscitation attempts proved futile, a hospital official said.
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John Prelip
If anybody has the obituary for Gibby, please send it to me and I will post it above the Modesto Bee article.John Duran
I was living in Merced going to School at Merced College when this happened. Gibby and I had several friends in common during that time that had motorcycles. We would all ride together or whatever you call that at that age. There was a group of friends that was going for a ride to the Sierra mountains that day and I was surpose to go with them. I had a smaller bike to get around Merced but i was never that comfortable taking it to the mountains so I decided not to go.I remember my friend Steve calling me up and saying that Gibby got hit by a truck and died. If I remember the story correct there were about 10-12 riders that day. A few of them were paramedics. They told me that they just left a gas station or a store which they got some soft drinks. Steve and another guy was leading the ride and Gibby was in the middle trying to catch up. He went to pass a couple of bikes very casually going around 30-40 MPH and cut the corner and a big F-150 Ford truck suddenly came around the corner and hit him head on. I will leave the graphic details out but the friends that were there were were seasoned paramedics and tried everything they could do to save him.
Gibby will be missed by all. John