Speeding Jeep goes airborne and hits tree in Placer County, killing driver, CHP says
A woman died after an overnight crash in Placer County in which the vehicle she was driving flew off the roadway, then hit a power pole and a large tree, California Highway Patrol officers said Thursday.
The woman’s vehicle, a white Jeep Cherokee, came to rest in the yard of a large rural property near Foresthill Road and Owl Hill Court, CHP Auburn spokesman Officer Dave Martinez said.
Investigators determined that the Jeep was heading east on Foresthill Road at an unknown time late Wednesday or early Thursday, when the driver swerved into the westbound lane and struck a curb at the intersection with Owl Hill Court, Martinez said.
The Jeep launched off the curb and went airborne, Martinez said, sideswiping a Pacific Gas and Electric Co. power pole, traveling over a fence and ultimately crashing into a large tree, knocking the tree down. The pole remained intact, and the crash did not knock out power in the area. The vehicle came to rest on the driver’s side.
Martinez said speed was a definite factor in the crash, which happened on a stretch of Foresthill Road with a slight uphill bend.
“It was a hard impact” with the tree, causing “major front-end damage,” he said.
The property owner found the crashed vehicle Thursday morning and contacted the CHP, Martinez said. He originally believed it to be an abandoned vehicle but on closer inspection noticed a person still inside.
Fire personnel arrived and pronounced the woman, the vehicle’s lone occupant, dead at the scene.
Martinez described the driver as a 48-year-old woman and “possible transient” from the Roseville or Auburn area. The coroner’s unit of the Placer County Sheriff’s Office responded to the scene and will handle formal identification of the victim.
