On September 30, 1955, Dean set off from Competition Motors, where he had prepared his Porsche 550 Spyder that morning for a sports car race at Salinas, California. Dean originally intended to trailer the Porsche to the meeting point at Salinas, behind his new Ford Country Squire station wagon, but at the last minute, Dean drove the Spyder, because he wanted to become more familiar with the car. Around 3:30PM, Dean was ticketed in Kern County for doing 65 in a 55 mph zone. Later, they stopped at Blackwell's Corner in Lost Hills for fuel and met up with fellow racer Lance Reventlow.

23-year-old Cal Poly student Donald Turnupseed was driving in the opposite direction in a black-and-white 1950 Ford Custom Tudor coupe and attempted to take the fork onto State Route 41. Turnupseed crossed into Dean's lane without seeing him as Dean was driving west on U.S. Route 466 (later State Route 46) near Cholame, California.

The two cars hit almost head on.

Dean was taken to Paso Robles War Memorial Hospital, where he was pronounced dead on arrival at 5:59 p.m.

On the day of James Dean's death, Cholame had a population of five and consisted of a Chevron gas station, a small store, and a tiny post office.

"That guy's gotta stop... He'll see us."

:(