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Fairfield: Driver Arrested in Double-Fatal DUI Crash on I-80

Monday, January 30th, 2012

Fairfield Drunk Driving Accident Lawyers

A Sacramento woman was arrested after a drunk driving accident that killed two people on I-80 in Fairfield.

A 42-year-old Sacramento woman was arrested early Sunday morning after a drunk driving accident that caused the deaths of two people on Interstate 80 in Fairfield.

• A drunk driver slammed into the rear of an SUV, sending it across the freeway. The SUV crashed into the center divider, rolled over, and landed upside-down in traffic.

• The driver and one of the passengers got out of the SUV and were trying to help the fourth passenger get out when an approaching vehicle crashed into the SUV and hit the two men. Both of them died at the scene.

• The drunk driver was arrested on felonly DUI charges as well as possession of a loaded gun in her vehicle.

The California Highway Patrol received a call about the crash at 5:23 a.m., according to a report in the Fairfield Daily Republic.

The CHP said Michelle Henry was driving a 2008 Buick Lucerne at a high rate of speed on westbound I-80 when she slammed into the rear of a 1997 Ford Explorer driven by 33-year-old Anthony Andrade. Both vehicles were in the No. 4 lane, just east of Air Base Parkway.

The Buick overturned on the right-hand shoulder and rolled into the trees and bushes alongside the freeway. The Explorer veered across all of the westbound lanes and crashed into the center divider. It overturned and rolled into the No. 2 lane, where it landed on its roof.

Andrade and one of his passengers, 25 year-old Vincente Santos, got out of the Explorer to help another passenger, 33-year-old Floyd Williams Jr., get out of the vehicle. But a Toyota Corolla, driven by 25-year-old Michael Soto, approached the wreck and was not able to avoid crashing into the mangled rear end of the Explorer.

The impact threw Santos into the westbound traffic lanes. He and Andrade both died at the scene.

Williams was transported by ambulance to North Bay Medical Center in Fairfield, where he was treated for minor injuries, according to the CHP. Soto was taken to Kaiser Hospital in Vacaville, also with minor injuries.

All of the men were from Sacramento.

Henry was taken to North Bay Hospital where she was treated for minor injuries and released to police custody, according to the Dixon Patch news site. She was arrested and charged with felony drunk driving and possession of a loaded firearm in her vehicle.

All westbound lanes of I-80 were closed for three hours while emergency crews cleared the scene and officers conducted a preliminary investigation.

Fairfield Drunk Driving Accident Lawyers

The trial attorneys at Blackman Legal Group, a California-based law firm founded by renowned trial attorney Clifford Blackman, have successfully represented drunk driving accident victims and their families for 35 years. The nationwide toll-free number to call for a free consultation is 1-866-692-8126.

Tags: auto accident, Blackman Legal Group, California accident lawyer, California accident lawyers, car accident, car accident lawyer, Clifford Blackman, drunk driving accident, drunk driving death, drunk driving fatalities, fatal accident, fatal collision, fatal drunk driving accident, fatal DUI crash, freeway crash, wrongful death
Posted in auto accident, car accident fatality, drinking and driving, driving under the influence, fatal crash, fatal injuries, highway crash, wrongful death | No Comments »

CHP Probe: How Did Aptos Teen Get Booze Before Fatal DUI Crash?

Tuesday, January 17th, 2012

State officials are investigating how a teen got alcohol before a fatal drunk driving crash Friday night near Watsonville.

• A teen suspected of drunk driving lost control when she crossed a double-yellow line to pass another vehicle on a two-lane road. Her car crashed into a tree.

• One of her six passengers died at the scene. The other five were hospitalized.

• The driver was hospitalized with major injuries and arrested on charges of drunk driving and vehicular manslaughter.

• State alcohol officials are looking into how the teen got the alcohol.

The accident occurred at about 11:30 p.m., according to a report in the Santa Cruz Sentinel.

The driver, 19-year-old Erica Shanice Duran of Aptos, was driving a 1993 Honda sedan on San Miguel Canyon Road in Royal Oaks, about 5 miles east of Watsonville. She had six passengers in her car.

Duran was traveling at high speed when she crossed a double yellow line to pass another vehicle, witnesses told the California Highway Patrol.

“A witness who was driving behind the Honda said the Honda attempted to pass another vehicle (on) a blind curve,” CHP officer Robert Lehman told KSBW News.

Duran lost control of her vehicle and crashed into a tree. One of her passengers, 21-year-old Joshua Perez of Salinas, was killed, Lehman said.

Two passengers were sitting on other people’s laps and did not have seat belts on because there were not enough seats, Lehman said. One passenger 21-year-old Gina Morgan, suffered major injuries and was airlifted via helicopter to San Jose Valley Medical Center.

Two other passengers, 24-year-old Timothy Garza of Salinas and 19-year-old Selena Sanchez of Watsonville, also suffered major injuries and were taken by ground ambulance to a Salinas hospital. A 17-year-old female passenger had moderate injuries, and 19-year-old Able Perez of Salinas sustained minor injuries.

Duran sustained major injuries as well. She was hospitalized and then arrested on charges of drunk driving and vehicular manslaughter. Now the California Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control wants to know where she got the alcohol she drank before she got behind the wheel. If investigators finds that an adult or an ABC-licensed business provided the alcohol to Duran, charges could be filed against them.

Duran’s Facebook status updates don’t help her case.

On Friday at 3 p.m., she posted: “Inbox full of parties. Let’s see what Friday da 13 has in store 4 me.”

At 9:34 p.m., she used a mobile phone to post: “Let’s chug dis bottle.”

The status updates were deleted on Monday, and were replaced with another message insisting that Duran was not drunk at the time of the accident, the KSBW report stated.

“Thank you everyone, I’m in the ICU. I hope everything is okay and I’m sorry,” Duran wrote. ”I wasn’t drunk for those who think I was. I’m glad I have my family and friends and my boyfriend.

California Drunk Driving Accident Lawyers

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Gilroy Woman Arrested in DUI Crash That Killed Husband, Daughter

Monday, January 16th, 2012

Police arrested Stacy Lonnberg (inset) for a DUI crash that killed her husband and daughter. (Photo: ABC News | Inset: Gilroy Dispatch)

Police arrested a Gilroy woman Saturday for a drunk driving accident that killed her husband and daughter.

• A drunk driver was speeding on Highway 85 with her husband, daughter, and grandchild in her vehicle.

• She attempted and unsafe lane change and sideswiped another vehicle. Then she overcorrected and her own vehicle rolled several times.

• Her husband and daughter died. She and her grandson suffered minor injuries.

• The drunk driver was arrested on felony DUI charges and felony vehicular manslaughter.

The fatal crash occurred at around 3:45 p.m. on Highway 85 in Los Gatos, according to a report in the Gilroy Dispatch.

The California Highway Patrol said 51-year-old Stacey Lonnberg was driving a 2002 Toyota Tacoma pickup northbound on the highway near Winchester Boulevard when she attempted “an unsafe lane change at a high rate of speed.”

She sideswiped a Chevrolet Silverado pickup truck and then overcorrected to get back into her lane. That caused the Toyota pickup truck to roll over several times before it crashed to a stop.

Lonnberg’s daughter, 16-year-old Tiffiny Gillette, was riding in the back seat without a seat belt. She was ejected from the vehicle and died at the scene.

Lonnberg’s husband, 67-year-old Fred Lonnberg, was wearing a seat belt but was trapped in the front passenger seat after being partially thrown from the vehicle, according to a report in the San Jose Mercury News. Paramedics extricated him from the pickup truck and rushed him to Valley Medical Center in San Jose with major injuries. He died from his injuries shortly before 11 p.m., the CHP reported.

Gillette’s young son Ethan was riding in the back seat. He suffered scrapes on his feet, CHP Officer D.J. Sarabia said. Most of the news reports said the boy is 1 year old and was riding in a booster seat meant for an older toddler, but a family friend who said she is the boy’s godmother told the Dispatch he is 3 years old. His true age was not confirmed by authorities.

Stacy Lonnberg sustained minor injuries, according to the CHP. She was taken into custody by the Santa Clara County Sheriff’s Office and charged with driving under the influence of drugs and alcohol and felony vehicular manslaughter, according to an ABC News report.

No one in the Silverado was injured.

Los Gatos Car Accident Lawyers

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Woodland: 1 Dead, 3 Injured in Solo DUI Crash on I-5

Monday, January 9th, 2012

A passenger was killed in a single-car DUI crash on I-5 in Woodland. (Photos: Woodland Daily Democrat)

A 22-year-old man was charged with felony drunk driving and manslaughter Friday night after a violent single-vehicle car accident on Interstate 5 in Woodland killed one of his passengers. The other two passengers suffered major injuries.

• A 22-year-old drunk driver lost control of his vehicle as he exited the freeway.

• The car flipped over and rolled several times, ejecting all three passengers. All of them were in their early 20s.

• One of the passengers died at the scene. The other two were hospitalized with major injuries.

• The drunk driver was airlifted to a hospital with major injuries. He was later arrested and charged with felony DUI and manslaughter.

The fatal DUI crash occurred at 9:44 p.m., according to a report in the Woodland Daily Democrat.

The California Highway Patrol’s preliminary investigation revealed that Ryan S. Baird of Sacramento was driving a 2001 Mitsubishi Eclipse southbound on I-5 at the time of the accident.

Baird lost control of the vehicle on the on the County Road 102 off-ramp at an unknown rate of speed. The car veered onto the shoulder, flipped over, and rolled several times before it landed upside down, on its roof.

None of the three passengers were wearing seat belts. All of them were ejected from the vehicle when it rolled.

Emergency crews from the CHP, Woodland Fire Department, Woodland Police Department and Yolo County Sheriff’s Department responded to the scene within a couple of minutes.

Paramedics attempted to resuscitate passenger Robert Dale Sunderland III, a 25-year-old Woodland resident, but he died at the scene.

Passenger Saeed Rodriguez, a 22-year-old Woodland resident, suffered a broken arm and a head injury. Passenger James D. L. Black, a 21-year-old who also is a Woodland resident, suffered a broken leg. They were taken to U.C. Davis Medical Center to be treated.

Baird suffered multiple facial lacerations. He also was taken to U.C. Davis Medical Center. Early reports indicated that he was flown by helicopter to the hospital. It was not clear whether the two surviving passengers were flown to the hospital or transported via ground ambulance.

CHP officers later arrested Baird. He was charged with at least two felonies, including driving under the influence and manslaughter.

Woodland is about 17 miles northwest of Sacramento.

Fatal Drunk Driving Accident Statistics

Almost 11,000 people die every year in drunk driving car accidents on U.S. roads, according to federal government statistics published by the non-profit group Alcohol Alert. Drunk driving deaths account for more than a third of all U.S. traffic fatalities.

Many people believe drunk drivers fare better than their victims on the road, but that is not true. Almost two-thirds of those who are killed in alcohol-impaired driving crashes are drunk drivers.

Drunk drivers involved in fatal crashes are typically not first-time offenders. Statistics show they are eight times more likely to have a prior drunk driving conviction than other drivers involved in fatal accidents.

More than half of drunk drivers involved in fatal accidents have levels of alcohol in their blood that are twice the legal limit — or more.

Woodland Drunk Driving Accident Lawyers

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Eureka: Wrong-Way Driver Killed in Head-On Crash on Hwy 101

Thursday, January 5th, 2012

An Arcata woman who was driving the wrong way on Highway 101 was killed in a head-on collision. (Photo: Eureka Times-Standard)

A woman who was driving the wrong way on U.S. Highway 101 Wednesday morning was killed in a head-on collision near Eureka. Police suspect she had been drinking alcohol.

• A woman who was under the influence of alcohol was weaving in and out of traffic on the highway and then suddenly made a U-turn and started driving the wrong way.

• Her car slammed into an oncoming vehicle. She died on impact.

• The other driver had to be extricated from his car, but he survived with relatively minor injuries.

The fatal accident occurred at 7:24 a.m., according to a report in the Eureka Times-Standard.

California Highway Patrol spokesman Paul Dahlen said a motorist had called the CHP at 7:12 a.m. — 12 minutes before the deadly crash — to report that 54-year-old Kathleen Jennings of Arcata was driving a 1987 Honda Civic about 35 mph on the highway and was weaving in and out of traffic.

A few minutes later, as officers were on their way to the area, more motorists called to reported that Jennings had started driving southbound in the northbound lanes.

Witnesses said Jennings had been driving the right direction on the highway when she reached the Samoa Boulevard offramp, but she somehow made a U-turn and ended up driving south in the northbound lanes. Dahlen said police don’t know for sure where she turned around.

Just north of the Bayside Cutoff, Jennings’ Honda slammed head-on into a 1999 Pontiac Grand Am driven by 25-year-old Joshua Larson of Eureka.

Larson had been driving behind another vehicle that had swerved suddenly to avoid crashing into Jennings’ car. Larson told police he didn’t see Jennings’ car heading toward him until it was too late to take any evasive action. Dahlen confirmed that there were no skid marks at the scene.

Jennings was killed on impact, Humboldt County Coroner Dave Parris told the Times-Standard. Dahlen said alcohol was probably a factor. He said she smelled like alcohol and officers found an empty Mike’s Hard Lemonade container. Police believe she had consumed the alcohol 20 to 40 minutes before the fatal accident.

Larson was trapped in his vehicle. Emergency workers had to use the Jaws of Life to extricate him from the wrecked car, but he survived with relatively minor injuries. Assistant Arcata Fire Chief Desmond Cowan credited Larson’s good fortune to the safety features on his car and the fact that he was wearing a seat belt.

“In our experience in the last 20 years, the difference between even relatively modern cars — with safety features like air bags built in — versus older model cars is noteworthy, really noticeable,” Cowan said. “That’s kind of evident in this incident.”

Eureka Car Accident Lawyers

The trial attorneys at Blackman Legal Group, a California-based law firm founded by renowned trial attorney Clifford Blackman, have successfully represented car accident victims and their families for 35 years. The nationwide toll-free number to call for a free consultation is 1-866-692-8126.

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