Ron Nelson, a Pearl Harbor survivor who was one of two California Highway Patrolmen at the scene of actor James Dean’s fatal car crash, died last week after suffering a stroke at home in Atascadero, California. He was 94. After the war, Nelson joined the CHP; in 1952, he transferred to the CHP’s Paso Robles substation, and responded to many accidents on the county’s narrow roadways. On September 30, 1955, he and CHP officer Ernie Tripke were dispatched to the junction of Highways 41 and 466 where a Ford sedan driven by a Cal Poly student named Donald Turnupseed had collided with James Dean’s westbound Porsche Spyder. “Nelson helped write what would become one of the most famous accident reports in CHP history,” reports the Los Angeles Times. “His photos of the crash site also became famous, though he didn’t profit from them and is rarely credited for their use: The actor’s roadster was crushed like an aluminum can — its dash twisted, making it appear the car had right-hand drive; the Porsche’s trunk was folded forward and its rear cowling was ripped open.” Nelson concluded that Turnupseed was responsible for the accident and that the wreckage and the position of Dean’s body indicated that Dean’s car had been traveling at 55mph and not 90 as widely reported. “Strange thing is,” Nelson told the Times, “I had never heard of James Dean the actor before the accident. I thought maybe this was James Dean the country singer.”