A passenger in a tow truck was killed Wednesday afternoon in a crash on Interstate 5, minutes after the rollover on the other side of the freeway of a car that ended up in a backyard.

Officer Angel Arceo, a spokesman for the Stockton-area California Highway Patrol, said that about 12:35 p.m., tow truck driver Scott Alan Gann, 31, of Rio Linda, was headed south onI-5 at an unknown speed when he crashed into the back of a big rig slowed in traffic. That pushed the big rig into the Freightliner ahead of it. Gann was flown to Modesto with major injuries. His passenger, a 22-year-old Sacramento man, was killed. His name was not released pending notification of his family.

According to a report, Gann had looked away momentarily and failed to notice in time that traffic had slowed.

The CHP reported that about 10 minutes earlier, Jeffery Joe Goncalves , 30, of Elk Grove was headed north on I-5 south of Hammer Lane when he veered off the east side of the highway and hit a tree, ending up in the backyard of a home adjacent to the freeway. He was taken to UC Davis Medical Center in Sacramento with major injuries.

Arceo said Goncalves only remembered changing lanes but did not recall what happened after.

At one point Stockton firefighters were working on both sides of the freeway to extract people from their vehicles.

There were several smaller crashes on I-5 throughout the morning.

Caltrans was working on southbound I-5 from March Lane to Alpine Avenue and on the onramp at March Lane, closing two lanes after 8 a.m.