Cardiff man dies from injuries suffered in Bishop crash

By City News Service

A Cardiff athletic trainer has just died from severe burns and other injuries suffered during an Aug. 9 car crash outside Bishop that killed two San Diego-area high school graduates and a Riverside County woman, a coroner in Nevada said Sunday.

John Nathan Adams, 39, died Saturday morning in a Reno hospital, according to the Washoe County Medical Examiner’s Office.

The fiery collision that led to Adams’s death began when he was riding in a 2004 Ford Expedition that was also carrying several graduates of Cathedral Catholic High School in Carmel Valley back from a sports camp inthe Eastern Sierra.

The Expedition, driven by Cathedral graduate Natalie Nield, was traveling south on U.S. 395 five miles south of Bishop when it veered onto the center divider and into northbound lanes, California Highway Patrol Officer Dennis Cleland said.

The vehicle struck one of three 15-passenger vans carrying members of the California Baptist University of Riverside’s cross-country team, which were convoying north on Highway 395, Cleland said.

The Expedition burst into flames, Cleland said. Nield, 17, and Cathedral graduate Amanda Post, 18, died in the crash, while Derek Thomas, 19, suffered severe burns over most of his body, according to a letter posted online by school principal Mike Deely.

The driver of the Cal Baptist van, 35-year-old Wendy Rice of Corona, also died. Rice was a Cal Baptist cheerleading coach.