A four-vehicle crash on southbound Highway 101 near Pepper Road in Petaluma left a woman with major injuries yesterday and shut down the freeway during the height of the commute. The California Highway Patrol says a Honda Pilot rear-ended a Volkswagen Golf around 6:40 AM, triggering a chain of impacts that also left a Toyota Corolla and a Dodge Ram truck with minor damage.
The female Volkswagen driver was transported to Santa Rosa Memorial Hospital, according to The Press Democrat, which reported the crash was handled by CHP Officer David DeRutte. Authorities said they did not immediately know whether the drivers of the other three vehicles were injured. CHP first logged the collision at 6:53 AM, a timestamp that, per Patch, sent morning commuters scrambling onto alternate local routes through Petaluma as the closure took hold.
Santa Rosa Memorial Hospital, where the injured driver was taken, is the only designated Level II Trauma Center serving Sonoma, Napa, Mendocino, Lake, and coastal Marin counties, according to Providence Health. The 338-bed facility handles roughly 1,450 life-threatening trauma cases a year across the North Coast, underscoring why emergency crews chose it as the receiving hospital for the crash’s most seriously hurt victim.
Freeway Shut Down for Nearly an Hour
CHP officers issued an emergency advisory blocking all southbound lanes near Pepper Road around 7:10 AM as crews worked to treat the injured and clear the four damaged vehicles from the roadway, according to SFGATE. Officials say the closure stretched nearly an hour before all southbound lanes reopened by 7:30 AM, a timeline CHP confirmed via a post on X…