Santa Rosa chain-reaction crash injures 5 — 3 critically

Santa Rosa police are looking for witnesses to a pair of collisions that occurred within moments of each other and left three people with critical injuries Thursday night.

They were injured when the 16-year-old driver of a BMW fleeing a minor collision smashed into a GMC pickup moments later, police said.

The two collisions happened 500 feet apart along Sebastopol Road around 8:20 p.m., Santa Rosa police said.

Those injured, according to Sgt. Chris Mahurin, were the BMW’s driver, a 15-year-old girl in the backseat and a 21-year-old male in the front passenger seat. All are from Santa Rosa.

The driver was flown to a hospital in Davis, where he was in serious condition as of Friday afternoon, but expected to recover, said Mahurin. The girl was flown to an Oakland hospital, where she also was in serious condition Friday afternoon and expected to recover.

The man who was riding in back is at Santa Rosa Memorial Hospital in critical condition, with life-threatening injuries, said Mahurin.

A male and a female in the pickup also were injured, with the male being hospitalized with injuries that weren’t life-threatening. Police did not release their ages.

According to police, the BMW was heading east on Sebastopol when it was involved in a collision at Stony Point Road.

At that point, said Mahurin, the BMW accelerated to “an estimated 60 to 70 miles per hour,” in a 30 mph zone, then broadsided the pickup, which had been traveling west and was making a left turn onto Burbank Avenue.

Police are investigating whether the BMW’s driver ran a red light at the intersection of Burbank and Sebastopol Road.

It’s unclear at this point, Mahurin added, whether drugs or alcohol were involved.

“We did take blood, through a search warrant of the driver, but have no determination yet,” he said.

You can reach Staff Writer Austin Murphy at 707-521-5214 or austin.murphy@pressdemocrat.com or on Twitter @ausmurph88.