Woman found injured on Highway 101 in Santa Rosa may have jumped from truck

After tumbling out of a pickup traveling south Monday on Highway 101 in Santa Rosa, a woman rolled several times before ending up prone in the middle of the highway as drivers swerved to avoid her.

Despite steady traffic in the area near Todd Road, the woman wasn’t hit by any vehicles as she lay on the asphalt, thanks in part to a Rincon Valley firefighter who positioned his red fire department pickup to shield the woman, CHP Officer Jon Sloat said.

“To be in the (middle) lane of southbound 101 - she was very lucky she wasn’t hit,” Sloat said.

The 65-year-old Santa Rosa woman told officers she fell out of the truck as it traveled about 60 mph. Officers also are investigating reports the woman jumped, Sloat said.

Just before 11:50 a.m., the woman was riding with a male friend in an older-model pickup, approaching Todd Road at highway speeds when the passenger door popped open and the woman came out, according to CHP reports.

Other southbound drivers quickly converged on the body in the middle lane and darted around her, including Rincon Valley engineer Ryan Estes, who was in a pickup.

Estes had just left the nearby firehouse when, heading south, he saw “one car shot left and one car shot right” and assumed “there must be something in the roadway.”

He was shocked to see it was a person, and realized “she was just finishing tumbling.”

With traffic slowing as the woman lay on the asphalt, he flipped on his red fire department pickup’s emergency light bar and made a quick U-turn, parking between the woman and oncoming traffic.

The woman was able to talk and indicated she may have been asleep and then fell out of the truck, he said.

Estes and other arriving Rincon Valley firefighters offered medical attention until an ambulance arrived to transport the woman to Santa Rosa Memorial Hospital. The woman suffered serious abrasions as well as possible broken bones. Her name wasn’t released as she was being given a mental health evaluation.

You can reach Staff Writer Randi Rossmann at 707-521-5412.