CHP: DUI suspect rear-ends Jeep on Highway 101 near Healdsburg, flees

A drunken driving suspect who crashed into a vehicle on Highway 101 and then fled the scene north of Healdsburg on Wednesday night has been arrested, the California Highway Patrol said.

The crash happened at about 10:30 p.m. just south of the Limerick Lane overcrossing on Highway 101.

A man driving alone in a Jeep Wrangler was headed north on the highway when he “noticed some headlights approaching pretty fast,” said Officer David deRutte, a CHP spokesman.

A man driving a GMC Acadia hit the Jeep from behind and the Jeep flipped over.

The man driving the Jeep climbed out of the vehicle and was taken to Santa Rosa Memorial Hospital with minor injuries, according to deRutte.

The driver who hit the man got out of his vehicle “to somewhat check on him, but then he left,” deRutte said.

Witnesses reported the man’s license plate to authorities, who then went to his house in Healdsburg where they questioned him.

The man was “a little combative when we were trying to contact him at the house,” deRutte said. He said the man refused a sobriety test and a breathalyzer test, but investigators believed he was under the influence of alcohol.

Phillip Rea, 29, of Healdsburg was booked into the Sonoma County Jail on suspicion of DUI, hit and run causing injury and resisting arrest.

Rea remained in custody on Thursday in lieu of $100,000 bail. He was scheduled to appear in court at 1:30 p.m. on Friday.

You can reach Staff Writer Matt Pera at matthew.pera@pressdemocrat.com. On Twitter @Matt__Pera.