Big rig overturns on River Road near Russian River Pub

A 59-year-old Stockton man was hospitalized Friday after the big rig he was driving overturned on River Road near the Russian River Pub, the CHP said.

The driver had just delivered a load of grapes to Korbel Winery when he appeared to suffer a medical emergency, the CHP said.

The driver, whose truck with two trailers was headed east on River Road, crossed the westbound lane and ran up the embankment on the north shoulder. Officials said the truck tractor and the trailer directly behind it overturned and blocked the westbound lane.

The driver was transported to Sutter Santa Rosa Regional Hospital with severe injuries.

Vehicles on River Road were restricted to one-lane traffic control for several hours. The CHP’s online traffic incident page said all lanes were reopened as of 2:50 p.m.

Russell Bartson, an information technology manager at Korbel, said he was at the Russian River Pub picking up food for his team when the wreck occurred. He said the crash sounded like the noise a truck makes when it goes over a bump, only amplified many times over.

Bartson said he and others in the pub went outside to see what happened. He said there was a big cloud of dirt coming from where the truck hit the embankment. Several people from a nearby RV park also ran to the scene.

The truck tractor and trailer lay on its passenger side in the westbound shoulder.

“Three or four people climbed on top of the truck to get the guy out,” Bartson said, adding that someone immediately started giving the man chest compressions.

“As soon as he was out of the truck he was lying down,” he said. “They performed CPR on top of the truck … he must have got ?5 minutes of CPR before the paramedics arrived.”

Bartson said that Russian River Pub staff helped conduct traffic before law enforcement officers arrived.

You can reach Staff Writer Martin Espinoza at 707-521-5213 or martin.espinoza@pressdemocrat.com. On Twitter @renofish.