A Hollister woman was killed this morning when her car drifted
over the median yellow line and struck another car on Fairview
Road.
Judith Debow, 55, was pronounced dead by paramedics at 8:19
a.m., according to California Highway Patrol officer Steve
Parra.
A Hollister woman was killed this morning when her car drifted over the median yellow line and struck another car on Fairview Road.
Judith Debow, 55, was pronounced dead by paramedics at 8:19 a.m., according to California Highway Patrol officer Steve Parra. The driver of the other car was taken to Hazel Hawkins Hospital with minor injuries, Parra said. The drivers were the only two involved in the accident.
Debow was driving a 2000 Chevrolet Monte Carlo northbound on Fairview Road at the Cielo Vista housing development. Her car drifted into the other lane, hitting a 2001 GMC Yukon that was traveling southbound.
According to physical evidence and a witness who was driving behind one of the vehicles, Debow’s drift into the opposing lane was the cause of the 7:54 a.m. accident, said CHP Sgt. Dave Hill.
The identity of the driver of the Yukon was not released pending notification of her family, the CHP said.
Both cars were traveling at about 35 miles per hour, Hill said.
“It’s still a 70-mile-an-hour impact,” he said. “It’s like hitting a wall at 70 miles an hour.”
Hill described the Monte Carlo’s drift as a slow, non-jerky movement. The driver of the Yukon had “no time to react,” he said.
Fairview Road was closed to through traffic until about 10 a.m. Cielo Vista residents, some of whom said they heard the impact, sat on the housing development’s front wall watching emergency crews at work.
“We definitely heard it. It sounded like a great big boom,” said Mark Wood, a resident of the subdivision. “You could hear the plastic and everything else. We knew it was bad.”
The collision was not head-on, but the point of impact was the front left on both cars. The front left tire on each car was removed by the impact. The cars spun in a circle after impact and came to rest, Hill said. The Monte Carlo traveled 100 feet after impact, he said. Both drivers’ air bags deployed.
Until an autopsy is performed, investigators will not know the cause of Debow’s death. It appeared to be blunt force trauma to the head, Hill said. The autopsy may also explain why her car drifted, he said.
According to Sheriff/Coroner Curtis Hill, the autopsy will be performed Tuesday.
