Forestville woman seriously injured after being hit in suspected DUI, wrong-way crash on Highway 101

A Forestville woman suffered life-threatening injuries after a wrong-way driver suspected of being intoxicated struck her car head-on early Sunday on Highway 101 near the Central Healdsburg Avenue offramp, authorities said.

Katherine Pisesky, 50, an urgent care nurse practitioner with Sutter Health, was headed south on the highway in her 2015 Volkswagen Beetle following an evening shift at Sutter Lakeside Hospital in Lakeport, CHP said. She had to be cut out of her car, which was totaled in the three-vehicle crash.

Hector Omar Cisneros-Ramirez, 38, of Healdsburg, was heading north in the southbound lanes around 1 a.m. when his 2016 Ford Focus collided at a high rate of speed with the Volkswagen, CHP said.

The CHP said it had received reports minutes earlier of a wrong-way driver on the highway about 3 miles south near Arata Lane in Windsor, but responding officers were unable to locate the driver.

The third vehicle, a 2018 GMC Sierra pickup with a male driver and two passengers, also was involved in the crash, CHP said. The two passengers were taken by ambulance to Sutter Hospital with minor injuries.

Pisesky suffered multiple severe trauma injuries, including to the head, and was unconscious and trapped in her car when emergency crews arrived, said Rick Blackmon, a battalion chief with the Cloverdale Fire Protection District.

A spokeswoman for Santa Rosa Memorial Hospital, where Pisesky was taken, could not be reached Sunday for an update on the woman’s condition.

The three-vehicle wreck shut down the southbound lanes of Highway 101 for about two hours before it was cleared and the lanes reopened, Blackmon said.

Cisneros-Ramirez was arrested on suspicion of two felonies, including driving under the influence and causing injury, as well as two misdemeanors for reckless driving and violating probation. Last May, he pleaded to obstruction of a peace officer in exchange for 30 days in jail and a deferred sentence and dismissal of two charges of possession and being under the influence of a controlled substance, according to court records.

Cisneros-Ramirez was treated for minor injuries at Santa Rosa Memorial Hospital and then booked into Sonoma County Jail, where he remained Sunday evening. Bail was set at $100,000.

You can reach Staff Writer Kevin Fixler at 707-521-5336 or kevin.fixler@pressdemocrat.com. On Twitter @kfixler.