Dramatic, drug-fueled crash tangles traffic in downtown Sebastopol
Police say they found the driver trapped inside the vehicle, still inhaling whippets, which contain nitrous oxide
Yesterday morning, Sebastopol Times reader Tom Boag wrote us asking what was happening downtown, noting that there were a bunch of police cars blocking the intersection of highways 12 & 116 at Petaluma Avenue.
The Sebastopol Police Facebook soon revealed the cause:
On Tuesday, Feb. 24, at about 6 am, Sebastopol police officers were dispatched to a solo car crash on the 6000 block of Sebastopol Avenue, with a driver reported to be trapped in the wreckage.
On arrival, officers located a black Land Rover SUV that had run through the Westamerica ATM parking area and then slammed into a brick wall of the now-closed Jasper O’Farrell bar, punching a substantial hole in the brickwork before coming to rest adjacent to the wall.
The driver, a 47-year-old male, was inside the vehicle and still inhaling whippets, which contain nitrous oxide.
The driver was removed from the vehicle, arrested and transported to the hospital for medical treatment. Upon release, the driver was transported to Sonoma County Sheriff’s Office Jail and booked for DUI.
Police say the vehicle was traveling westbound on Sebastopol Avenue at a significant and unsafe speed. At the intersection of Petaluma Avenue, the SUV hit the curb at West America Bank, crashed through some large signage, ripping it out of the ground, then through a few large trees, breaking them off at ground level, continuing through the entire parking lot before hitting the side of the historic bar, which is currently for sale.
Sebastopol Police wrote on their Facebook page, “We are extremely grateful that none of our citizens were in the vicinity of this driver and vehicle at the time of the crash, or we would most certainly be dealing with a lot more than property damage.”
This article was based on a post on the Sebastopol Police Facebook page.
We are fortunate nobody was hurt. I guess the driver did not understand that two streets make drivers go slower and drive more carefully.