Fatal crash outside Petaluma closes Lakeville Highway for hours

One person was killed and three people were injured in a collision outside Petaluma on Wednesday morning.|

A motorist died after crossing into oncoming traffic on Lakeville Highway outside of Petaluma and crashing head-on into a full-size Toyota pickup Wednesday morning, according to preliminary CHP reports.

Three people inside the truck were injured and taken to local hospitals in the wake of the 10:10 a.m. crash, which forced traffic to detour around the crash site for more than three hours, emergency personnel said.?The name of the deceased has not been released publicly yet.

The occupants of the truck, all Santa Rosa residents, included a disabled man, Luis Alvarez Jr., 33, who was en route to a doctor appointment, the CHP said.

Preliminary CHP reports said the incident involved a red Toyota Tundra and a black Mercedes sedan driven by a man headed northbound who, on a slight curve to the right, suddenly crossed into the southbound lane.

Patty Anderson of Sebastopol said she was driving behind the southbound Tundra when “all of a sudden I saw the car coming head-on toward the car right in front of me.”?She said she slammed on her brakes, aware the guardrail ran right along the road and there was no shoulder space to move onto.

CHP Officer Mike Tonelli said the driver of the pickup, Luis Alvarez, 52, had almost no time to react. Like the Mercedes about 60 feet away from him, he was traveling at roughly 50 mph.

The impact of the crash forced the smaller vehicle up onto the guardrail at the edge of the road, killing the driver at the scene, the CHP said.

Alvarez’s front-seat passenger, Olga Rodriguez, 47, suffered major injuries in the crash and was flown by CHP helicopter to Queen of the Valley Hospital in Napa, while the two Alvarez men were taken by ground ambulance to Santa Rosa Memorial Hospital for treatment of minor injuries, emergency personnel said.

The collision occurred between the two points where Old Lakeville Road No. 2 connects to Lakeville Highway, allowing north- and southbound traffic to use the older road as a detour, Tonelli said.

The highway was fully reopened at 1:40 p.m., the CHP said.

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