Three vehicles crashed Tuesday afternoon in east Santa Rosa, sending one down an embankment where it landed in the crook of an oak tree, trapping the driver.
Santa Rosa fire, two ambulances and police were called to the 2:45 p.m. collision on Montgomery Drive, just east of Mission Boulevard. Officials closed busy Montgomery Drive as wrecked vehicles and fire engines blocked the two‑lane route.
The chain‑reaction impact severely damaged all three vehicles and sent them in different directions, with the Subaru knocked over the side, the back end cradled in “Y” of the tree some five feet off the ground. Without the tree, it appeared the Subaru would have landed in the rushing creek just feet away.
Another vehicle stopped in the roadway and one skidded sideways, perched precariously with one tire off the asphalt, said Santa Rosa fire Battalion Chief Ken Sebastiani.
Two people had minor injuries. The woman stuck in the tree was freed by firefighters who popped out the windshield and helped her out and up a ladder to the roadway. She appeared to have moderate injuries, Sebastiani said.
One of the drivers, Stephany Joy of Rohnert Park, said she was headed west in her Rav4 on Montgomery Drive when she saw the Subaru ahead of her, over the double yellow lines. “I moved to the right as best I could to avoid that car coming toward me,” Joy said.
She missed a collision but another vehicle was hit by the Subaru, pushing it into Joy’s car, she said. The Rav4 was the vehicle stopped on the roadway’s edge.
“By a miracle I didn’t fall in the creek,” said Joy.
Just after the collision other drivers stopped to offer aid, she said. “People were really good, they came by to help.”
Santa Rosa police were investigating the collision.
You can reach Staff Writer Randi Rossmann at 521-5412 or randi.rossmann@pressdemocrat.com. On Twitter at @rossmannreport.
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