A man died in a traffic collision early Saturday morning when his vehicle collided with a tree along the sidewalk and then burst into flames on Union Road just north of Lathrop Road

An adult female passenger was pulled from the vehicle by citizens.

Manteca Fire responded to the 12:55 a.m. Saturday crash. They extinguished the flames but were unable to extract the adult male driver who died at the scene.

The female passenger had moderate nonlife threatening injuries and was transported to a local area hospital. Detectives responded to the hospital to speak with the passenger. The department’s Major Accident Investigation team responded to the scene of the collision.

It was the first traffic facility of 2020 on city streets.

Six people died in Manteca traffic accidents last year, double the number of murder victims.

There were a record 1,065 accidents in Manteca during 2019. The accident rate is already trending 11.84 percent above last year with 85 accidents in January compared to 76 in the same month during 2019.