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In This Issue...
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Series of Serious Crashes Plagues County
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Series of Serious Crashes Plagues County
The California Highway Patrol reported a run of daytime DUI accidents that caused four deaths, while other collisions around the county snarled traffic and sent victims to the hospital.
The string of crashes began Oct. 29 when the 23-year-old driver of a 2003 Toyota Tacoma fell asleep at the wheel. She was driving on Soquel-San Jose Road at 8:50 a.m. when the vehicle left the roadway, hit a tree and rolled 180 feet down a steep embankment. Fortunately, the driver was using a seat belt. She suffered only minor injuries and was able to exit the wreck and climb back to the roadway.
A second single-car rollover occurred Oct. 31 in the San Lorenzo Valley. The driver of a 1992 Ford headed southbound on Love Creek Road at 7:05 p.m. crossed the opposite lane, hit the embankment and rolled on its side. CHP determined the unidentified driver, age 19 of Ben Lomond, was under the influence of alcohol. He sustained major injuries and was airlifted to Stanford. The passenger, age 17, had minor injuries, but was also sent to the hospital.
Later that night just north of Watsonville, a Cadillac Escalade speeding south on Green Valley Road at 10:33 p.m. hit a Dodge Durango stopped at the intersection of Airport Boulevard.
The impact pushed the Durango into the rear of another vehicle. Both victim drivers sustained minor injuries. The Cadillac fled the scene and collided with a Chevy Tahoe as the suspect attempted to pass. The Cadillac then hit a fire hydrant, causing a 150-foot geyser of water.
The Cadillac again fled the scene, eventually rolling onto Buena Vista Drive. The unidentified driver apparently fled in another vehicle, but was tracked to his home by Watsonville Police and arrested for DUI and hit-and-run violations.
Two men died when a drunk driver with a suspended license veered into oncoming traffic Nov. 1. Sherri Chinn, age 38 of Santa Cruz, was driving a Honda Odyssey southbound on Highway 1 north of Santa Cruz at 2:55 p.m. when she hit and killed a motorcyclist and the car driven by his wife that was following him. One of Chinn's two passengers later died of injuries sustained in the crash. CHP reported that Chinn's blood alcohol level measured .24, three times the legal limit.
The morning commute Nov. 2 on northbound Soquel Drive just south of Soquel Village was snarled when a 19-year-old male from Aptos driving a 2000 Mercury Mountaineer looked down and failed to see traffic stopped at a light ahead of him, according the CHP Officer Sarah Jackson. The Mountaineer hit a Honda sedan at about 30 miles an hour in a 25-mile-per-hour zone, pushing it into the car ahead and sending the mother and daughter in the car to hospital to check their injuries.
The next day a solo crash slowed southbound Highway 1 traffic when a 73-year-old woman felt her car pull to the right and lost control, according to CHP reports. After hitting the guard rail on the right side of the highway, she spun across both lanes and hit the center guardrail. The driver was airlifted to Valley Medical Center with major injuries.
The second group of fatalities occurred Nov. 4 at 11:26 a.m. in a single-car accident on Whiting Road in south county. The 33-year-old driver, who CHP believes had been drinking, allowed a 2006 Chevy Silverado to veer to the right and off the edge of the road. It overturned, fell down an embankment and struck a tree, which went through the roof, killing the driver and a 52-year-old male passenger. Three surviving passengers were airlifted to trauma centers.
The CHP noted that DUI collisions killed 837 Californians last year and injured 13,140.
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