Three injured in east Santa Rosa multicar crash

Three vehicles crashed Tuesday afternoon in east Santa Rosa, sending one down an embankment, where it landed in the crook of an oak tree, trapping the driver just feet away from Santa Rosa Creek.

Santa Rosa fire, two ambulances and police were called to the 2:45 p.m. collision on Montgomery Drive, just east of Mission Boulevard. Officials closed busy Montgomery Drive as wrecked vehicles and fire engines blocked the two-lane route.

The chain-reaction impact severely damaged all three vehicles and sent them in different directions, with the Subaru knocked off the side of the road and down an embankment into the “Y” of a tree. Without the tree, it appeared the Subaru would have landed in the rushing creek.

A second vehicle stopped in the road and the third, a Toyota RAV4, skidded sideways, stopping perched precariously with one tire off the asphalt, said Santa Rosa fire Battalion Chief Ken Sebastiani.

Two people had minor injuries.

The woman driving the Subaru stuck in the tree was freed by firefighters who popped out the windshield and helped her climb a ladder up to the road.

She appeared to have moderate injuries, Sebastiani said.

One of the drivers, Stephany Joy of Rohnert Park, said she was headed west in her RAV4 on Montgomery Drive when she saw the Subaru ahead of her, crossed over the double yellow lines.

“I moved to the right as best I could to avoid that car coming toward me,” Joy said.

She avoided a collision, but the second vehicle was hit by the Subaru, pushing it into Joy’s car.

“By a miracle I didn’t fall in the creek,” said Joy. “People were really good, they came by to help.”