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Three Car Crashes Kill Four
Four people have been killed in a tragic weekend on Sonoma County highways. The names of four victims, killed in three separate accidents in the same day, were released this morning by the Sonoma County Coroner's office.
Michael Johnson, 42, of Santa Rosa, was an accident at about 1:10 a.m. on Sunday. His 1978 Chevrolet pickup truck crashed directly into a center divider, rolled over, and finally came to rest on the southbound side of U.S. Highway 101, north of Todd Road.
According to police reports, Johnson swerved off the road after he tried to avoid striking another car while he was changing lanes. Johnson overcorrected and his truck shot across all the southbound lanes and struck the center divider.
Rescue crews believe that Johnson was killed instantly in the accident. He was found partially ejected and pinned under the overturned truck.
Johnson was not wearing his seatbelt.
A head-on collision that occurred around 1:58 a.m. on Sunday left two Petaluma women dead also. They were driving on Highway 12 near Sebastopol when a Chevrolet 2500 pickup crashed into their Honda minivan.
The two women killed in that accident have been identified as 47-year-old Kristina Arango, who was the driver, and her passenger, 39-year-old Minerva Jiminez.
According to the CHP, Jiminez was not wearing her seatbelt.
Another passenger in the Honda minivan was rushed to Santa Rosa Memorial Hospital. He sustained major injuries and doctors have reported that he may have suffered permanent injury to one of his eyes.
The driver of the pickup truck, 36-year-old Rolf Kissmann, is now facing charges of driving under the influence as well as vehicular manslaughter. He was also treated at Santa Rosa Memorial Hospital for two broken ankles, according to the CHP. A man riding inside the pickup did not receive any major injuries.
CHP reports that visibility was a factor in the accident. At the time of the accident, dense fog only allowed for 100 feet of visibility east of Morris Road.
Kissmann swerved his truck into the oncoming lane and ran head-on into the eastbound Honda. CHP investigators have officially declared that excessive speed is not being named a cause of the crash but that Kissman is being criticized for not slowing despite the low visibility.
The third of accident of the day occurred at 3:40 p.m. and killed Ricardo Dominguez, 19, of Sonoma. He lost control of his 1992 Nissan and went careening over an embankment on southbound U.S. Highway 101 near the Mendocino County line.
His car fell 400 feet and killed Dominguez instantly and injured the two passengers riding in his car. The two sustained moderate to major injuries, according to a spokesman from the CHP.
Fire rescue crews removed the two passengers and rushed them to the hospital. One female was airlifted by a REACH helicopter and another was taken by ambulance to an area hospital, said an officer from the CHP.