Driver Was Texting When She Hit Boy In Rohnert Park Crosswalk: Police

SONOMA COUNTY, CA – A Petaluma woman who was texting while driving struck a 12-year-old boy in a crosswalk in Rohnert Park on Monday afternoon, according to the city's Department of Public Safety.

The boy, however, may have been "playing chicken" with passing vehicles, Cmdr. Aaron Johnson said.

Sadie Sonntag, 38, was driving a Toyota Camry south on Snyder Lane in Rohnert Park around 3:45 p.m. when she hit the boy, who was running west in a crosswalk across Snyder Lane from Rosana Way toward Capri Way, according to the department.

Sonntag was reading a text message and did not see the boy in the crosswalk. When she looked up, she was unable to stop and struck the victim, public safety officers said.

The boy rolled onto the hood of the Toyota and was thrown about 40 feet. He suffered a possible fractured leg, bumps and scrapes and was taken to Sutter Santa Rosa Regional Hospital, public safety officers said.

Sonntag was "visibly shaken" by the collision and remained at the scene to cooperate with the investigation, Johnson said. Alcohol was not a factor in the collision.

A witness said he thought the boy was dodging between vehicles, and there were previous reports that students at Lawrence E. Jones Middle School at 5154 Snyder Lane were "playing chicken," Johnson said.

Investigators have not yet interviewed the boy, and Sonntag probably will be cited for distracted driving even though there is no evidence she was sending a text herself, Johnson said.

"We think that had the driver not read the text, she would have seen him," Johnson said. "She learned a valuable lesson."

Officers now plan maximum enforcement of traffic laws in the area of the collision, Johnson said.

He noted the collision Monday happened nearly six years to the day that a Sonoma State University student, who was texting while driving, struck and killed a 2-year-old girl and seriously injured her mother in a crosswalk on Snyder Lane in Rohnert Park on Dec. 1, 2010.

Kaitlyn Dunaway pleaded no contest to the misdemeanor vehicular manslaughter of Calli Murray, of Rohnert Park.She was sentenced to three years of probation and 120 days in Sonoma County Jail. The court allowed her to serve 115 days of her term in electrically monitored home confinement.

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