A single car accident on US 101 Tuesday afternoon sent one
Hollister mother to the hospital and traumatized her two young
daughters who were in the car, according to the California Highway
Patrol.
A single car accident on US 101 Tuesday afternoon sent one Hollister mother to the hospital and traumatized her two young daughters who were in the car, according to the California Highway Patrol.
Grace Yuen Maharaj, 45, sustained a broken femur and some cuts and scratches when a puppy her 9 and 12-year-old daughters were playing with in the back seat of her Chevy Suburban distracted her, causing her to lose control and overturn her vehicle, according to the CHP.
Maharaj’s daughters suffered minor scrapes to their legs.
There were no injuries to the puppy.
Maharaj was traveling northbound on Highway 101, north of Luchessa, at 1:22 p.m., when she turned to look into the back seat at her daughters playing with a new Yorkshire puppy, said CHP Officer Terry Mayes.
“It was about six weeks old and they were on their way to PETCO,” Mayes said.
While her back was to the road, she allowed the vehicle to drift into the dirt. In an attempt to get back onto the roadway she over-corrected, steering sharply to the left, Mayes said.
“She shot sideways across the lanes and overturned and rolled into the center median,” she said. “The car ended (upright) with two wheels on the northbound side and one wedged right in between the guard rails.”
Although Maharaj was wearing a seat belt, somehow it disengaged while the vehicle was rolling and she was ejected when the door buckled open, Mayes said.
“Witnesses said they saw the car roll over her… but it could have just looked like it did,” Mayes said. “Either way, she’s really lucky.”
Maharaj was flown to San Jose Valley Medical Center via CALSTAR, and for precautionary reasons her daughters were taken by ambulance to San Jose Valley Medical, Mayes said.
Maharaj’s vehicle sustained major damage “all the way around” from the roll-over, she said.
