1 injured in Arnold Drive collision near Viansa

Traffic stopped as CHP responds to “extensive damage” accident on SR-121, south Arnold Drive.|

A two-car collision tied up traffic for over an hour on Highway 121 near Viansa Winery on Wednesday afternoon, after a 17-year-old driver lost control of his vehicle and crossed into oncoming traffic.

The driver, identified in CHP report as a male resident of Sonoma, was at the wheel of a 2003 Chevy Tahoe pulling another vehicle on a trailer, headed south on the two-lane highway.

“For reasons still under investigation,” said Officer Marc Renspurger from the Napa office of the CHP, “Party No. 1 lost control of the trailer, which crossed over the solid double yellow lines directly into the path of Party No. 2’s vehicle.”

The second vehicle was a 2016 Ford Escape, driven by a 66-year-old Cloverdale woman with a male passenger, 75, also from Cloverdale and possibly her spouse. The Escape suffered major front-end damage and both vehicles were forced off the highway by the impact; the Tahoe and its trailer overturned.

Renspurger said the car trailer was bearing a Ford Mustang, headed to the Sonoma Raceway where Wednesday night drag racing events were taking place.

Both drivers and passengers “self-extricated,” though the passenger was found lying in the road by arriving first responders according to the Schell-Vista Fire Department. After on-scene treatment he was airlifted by CHP helicopter to Santa Rosa Memorial Hospital with minor injuries.

The collision was reported shortly after 6 p.m. in the 26000 block of Arnold Drive, south of the 121 intersection and north of Highway 37, near the abandoned Cherry Tree building. Traffic in both directions was blocked by 6:10 p.m. A sig alert was issued at 6:27 that both lanes of 121 were blocked north of Highway 37, though controlled one-way traffic was being permitted before 7 p.m.

The cause of the collision remains under investigation.

Email Christian at christian.kallen@sonomanews.com.

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