Minor injuries reported after SR-299E rollover west of Fall River Mills
UPDATED: Monday, March 7, 12:15 a.m., With additional witness statements.
FALL RIVER MILLS, Calif. — A Yuba City mother and her two young children were lucky to escape serious injuries after their vehicle crashed and overturned between the Intermountain area towns Fall River Mills and Burney yesterday afternoon, Sunday, March 6.
The solo-vehicle accident happened along a notoriously treacherous two-lane stretch of SR-299E, about a half-mile west of Vista Point.
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California Highway Patrol, along with Shasta County Sheriff’s Office and other emergency personnel, were dispatched to the scene around 4:30 p.m. after receiving reports of a vehicle that had struck the mountainside and overturned. 911 callers reported the SUV came to rest within the lanes of traffic and that good Samaritans were providing aid and comfort to the vehicle’s three occupants.
When officials arrived, they found a black SUV on its roof blocking both directions of travel. With help from witnesses and good Samaritans, all three victims had already self-extricated from the overturned vehicle.
Burney resident Amber Mayhue, who was one of several good Samaritans who stopped to help in the immediate aftermath of the crash, described the victims as a mother with two children, including an infant of around 8-months and a two-year-old.
Yesterday’s crash resulted in significant delays in travel times as officials worked to clear an overturned SUV from Hwy 299E, west of Pit One and Vista Point. Linda Sue Curry photos
Medical personnel began evaluating and treating the victims of the crash, and witnesses later reported seeing the mother and children transported by ground ambulances to an area hospital for further evaluation and treatment.
Mayhue, a former volunteer firefighter for Alturas Rural Fire Protection District, later told SCNS the driver and her two children were all properly buckled at the time of the crash and that the children had been in their car seats, which she speculated may have saved their lives.
“It is so important to stay cautious of mountain roads,” Mayhue went on to explain, while downplaying her actions to help the victims immediately after the crash.
“Any good person would have stopped to help, and we had so many great people from the community stop to help and care for the victims until CHP and other emergency responders arrived,” she continued.
Burney resident Linda Sue Curry, who was just one of countless area motorists and commuters who found themselves stuck in congestion caused by the accident and subsequent cleanup, told SCNS this morning that late afternoon glare caused by the dipping sun may have contributed to the accident.
While Curry was able to work her way past the scene of the crash in around thirty minutes, others stuck in the backup while waiting for a wrecker to respond to the location to right the overturned SUV back onto its wheels reported delays of up to an hour.
Contacted this morning for further details related to the accident, CHP was not able to immediately provide any additional information, but an agency representative confirmed the investigation into the cause of the crash is continuing.
Contact the writer: [email protected]
Trevor Montgomery, 51, moved in 2017 to the Intermountain area of Shasta County from Riverside County and operates Riverside County News Source (RCNS) and Shasta County News Source (SCNS), which act as stringer-news providers for other mainstream media organizations throughout the two regions they serve.
Additionally, he writes or has written for several other news organizations; including Riverside County based newspapers Valley News, Valley Chronicle, Anza Valley Outlook, and Hemet & San Jacinto Chronicle; the Bonsall/Fallbrook Village News in San Diego County; and Mountain Echo in Shasta County. He is also a regular contributor to Thin Blue Line TV and Law Enforcement News Network and has had his stories featured on news stations throughout the Southern California and North State regions.
Trevor spent 10 years in the U.S. Army as an Orthopedic Specialist before joining the Riverside County Sheriff’s Department in 1998. He was medically retired after losing his leg, breaking his back, and suffering both spinal cord and brain injuries in an off-duty accident. (Click here to see segment of Discovery Channel documentary of Trevor’s accident.)
During his time with the sheriff’s department, Trevor worked at several different stations; including Robert Presley Detention Center, Southwest Station in Temecula, Hemet/Valle Vista Station, Ben Clark Public Safety Training Center, and Lake Elsinore Station; along with other locations.
Trevor’s assignments included Corrections, Patrol, DUI Enforcement, Boat and Personal Water-Craft based Lake Patrol, Off-Road Vehicle Enforcement, Problem Oriented Policing Team, and Personnel/Background Investigations. He finished his career while working as a Sex Crimes and Child Abuse Investigator and was a court-designated expert in child abuse and child sex-related crimes.
Trevor has been married for more than 30 years and was a foster parent to more than 60 children over 13 years. He is now an adoptive parent and his “fluid family” includes 13 children and 18 grandchildren.
Hello, yes I am the driver. The case is closed, as I hit gravel and once the car started spinning, we went head on into the side of the mountain and flipped. The sun had nothing to do with it. I am utterly grateful for all the people who stopped to help us in the time of need, we were very very lucky to walk away with the minor injuries that we did!
So happy that you and those babies are okay! Thank the Lord. He is so awesome. And thank you to the community to coming together for others in the time of desperate need. I wish there were more acts of kindness like this. Rather then so much of the havoc and chaos that we see so often these days.