5 Injured In Wrong-Way Crash On U.S. 101; 1 Arrested For DUI: CHP

SONOMA COUNTY, CA — A Healdsburg man was arrested on suspicion of DUI after he drove the wrong way early Sunday morning on U.S. Highway 101 and collided head-on with two other vehicles, the California Highway Patrol reported.

Five people were injured in the three-car crash reported just before 1 a.m. Sunday on southbound 101 at Westside Road in Healdsburg, CHP Officer David deRutte said in a news release.

CHP dispatchers received a 911 call at about 12:55 a.m. about a possible wrong-way driver who appeared to be traveling northbound in the southbound lanes of U.S. 101 north of Windsor near Arata Lane.

"Multiple units responded to the area in an attempt to locate the vehicle," deRutte said.

Moments later, the wrong-way driver crashed his 2016 Ford Focus head-on into two vehicles, a 2015 Volkswagen Beetle and a 2018 GMC Sierra pickup truck, that had been traveling in the southbound lanes of 101 near Westside Road.

A Forestville woman driving the VW suffered major injuries and was transported to Santa Rosa Memorial Hospital.

A man driving the GMC suffered minor injuries, as did two of his passengers. All three were treated at Sutter Hospital, deRutte said.

The Ford driver, identified by the CHP as 37-year-old Omar Cisnero-Ramirez of Healdsburg, suffered minor injuries.

Cisnero-Ramirez was treated at Santa Rosa Memorial Hospital, then arrested and booked into Sonoma County jail on suspicion of DUI causing injury.

The incident remains under investigation, deRutte said.

Photo courtesy California Highway Patrol