A Paicines youth was seriously injured when a carload of
teenagers plunged down a 50-foot embankment along Panoche Road
Sunday night.
A Paicines youth was seriously injured when a carload of teenagers plunged down a 50-foot embankment along Panoche Road Sunday night.
Investigators with the California Highway Patrol are still reviewing the cause of the crash, which sent the 16-year-old boy to the trauma unit at San Jose Medical Center with a head injury.
The youth, whose name was not released because of his age, was released late Tuesday afternoon, a hospital spokesperson said.
He was one of four teenagers in a 1979 Chevrolet Camaro driven by Jeffrey Baker, 18, of Hollister, the CHP said.
The accident happened at approximately 8:42 p.m. Sunday on Panoche Road about a half-mile east of Highway 25 when Baker, who was driving westbound at a high rate of speed, approached a curve in the road, the CHP said.
Baker reportedly realized he was headed into the turn too fast and stepped on the brakes. But the brakes locked up and the car skidded for about 100 feet before it ran off the north edge of the road, striking an electrical guide wire, the CHP said.
The force of the impact snapped the wire and splintered a post, sending pieces of wood and live electrical wires into the air, the CHP said.
The car continued down the embankment and rolled an unknown number of times until it stopped at the bottom, the CHP said.
One of the passengers squeezed out of the car and left the scene shortly before emergency crews arrived, the CHP said. Baker, who sustained a broken nose and facial bruises, was pinned inside the car and had to be extricated by a California Department of Forestry crew, the CHP said.
Investigators said most of the injuries could have been avoided if the passengers had been wearing seat belts.
