A 19-year-old Petaluma man who had been paralyzed in a diving accident last year died in a crash Sunday evening on Highway 101 south of the Redwood Landfill and Recycling Center, the California Highway Patrol said.

The Marin County Sheriff s Office on Monday identified the victim as Daniel "Danny" Cox.

Cox was heading south on 101 in his 2005 Dodge Magnum at about 5:35 p.m. when he apparently drifted off the road and collided with a tree, CHP Officer Chris Rardin said.

He was pronounced dead at the scene.

A piece of debris from Cox s van hit a second vehicle, but that driver was uninjured. The CHP had originally described the accident as a two-vehicle crash.

There were no tire-friction marks leaving the roadway, and the debris from the Dodge scattered for approximately 300 feet from the site of the collision, the CHP said.

The Novato Fire District used the "jaws of life" to extract the victim from his vehicle, Capt. Phil Tripp said. There was no one else was in the vehicle.

The CHP closed the right lane before 6 p.m. for about 45 minutes, causing southbound traffic to back up to the Cotati grade.

Around 8 p.m. the CHP closed the right lane again to remove the Dodge. Traffic was jammed into Santa Rosa just before 9 p.m.

Cox, a Petaluma High School graduate and former track star, became paralyzed from the chest down after a diving accident in Lake Tahoe on Aug. 10, 2010, according to the Santa Rosa

The Petaluma community rallied around the injured teen, raising tens of thousands of dollars for his medical expenses.