Update: West Marin Rancher Dies When Truck Crashes into Nicasio Reservoir

A driver died Monday evening when his pickup flipped off Point Reyes-Petaluma Road and into the Nicasio Reservoir in West Marin, according to the California Highway Patrol.

The man was identified Tuesday morning as as Richard Louis Giacomini, a 71-year-old resident of Point Reyes, according to the Marin County coroner's division. Giamonini was a prominent rancher in Point Reyes whose family sold their ranch in 2000 to the National Park Service, which transformed it into the Giacomini Wetland Restoration Project. It is managed by Point Reyes National Seashore.

Giacomini was driving from Point Reyes Station in a 2003 Chevy Silverado pickup when he apparently drifted off the road just west of Nicasio Boulevard at about 5:45 p.m. The truck struck a guardrail, flipped and landed in the reservoir.

When emergency personnel arrived, the vehicle was submerged in the reservoir, with the roof approximately four feet under the surface, according to Mike Giannini, a battalion chief with Marin County Fire Department.

Giacomini was in the submerged truck when divers from the Marin County Sheriff's Office dive team found him. He was pronounced dead at 6:42 p.m., CHP said.

Point Reyes Petaluma Road was reopened at approximately 10:15 p.m.

Divers from the Marin County Sheriff’s Office and the Southern Marin Fire District checked the truck for other occupants and combed the waters around the vehicle to be sure that no one was ejected during the accident. No other victims were located, Giannini said.

--Bay City News Service contributed to this report.

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