Medical emergency prompted fatal Fountaingrove crash in Santa Rosa

Santa Rosa traffic investigators have determined a man killed in a Fountaingrove Parkway crash in early January suffered a medical emergency while driving, causing him to lose control and crash into a light pole.

Anthony Louis Devincenzi, 39, died Jan. 3, soon after his Chevrolet S-10 pickup veered off of the hillside route at Bicentennial Way and hit the pole.

He'd been headed east at about 8:40 a.m. when he crashed. It had been lightly raining at the time.

Santa Rosa traffic Sgt. Ryan Corcoran said an autopsy showed Devincenzi died from injuries from the impact and that the investigation determined the crash was preceded by an undisclosed medical issue.

Devincenzi was the first of three people to die in Santa Rosa crashes in January - an unusually high number of fatalities in a city that has averaged four to five fatalities per year since 2012.

“We average a fatal collision every 2-3 months. It's surprising to have three in a month,” said Santa Rosa traffic Sgt. Ryan Corcoran Wednesday. “We hope our traffic enforcement efforts prevent fatal collisions but sometimes it's out of our control.”

Traffic investigators still are looking into the crash Jan. 10 on Montecito Boulevard at Benicia Drive. That crash involved an 85-year-old Beverly Ludwig of Santa Rosa, who later died, and a 21-year-old Sonoma man. Corcoran this week said officers still were determining fault.

The last traffic fatality of the month involved the death of an Santa Rosa woman struck by a suspected drunken driver while walking with a friend in Oakmont.

On Jan. 20, Gayle Gray, 77, was arrested after hitting the two women. Six days later 85-year-old Jackie Simon died from her injuries. Simon's friend Josephine Ross, 91, still is recuperating from serious injuries.

Gray has been charged with vehicular manslaughter. All three women lived in Oakmont.

You can reach Staff Writer Randi Rossmann at 521-5412 or randi.rossmann@pressdemocrat.com or Twitter@rossmannreport.

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Editor's Note:

The name of one of the victims in the Oakmont crash, Jackie Simon, was misspelled in an early version of this story. It has been corrected in the article above.