A suspected drunken driver ran over a mattress on the Ramona Expressway, causing him to lose control and smash head-on into another car on the opposite lane, a California Highway Patrol officer said today.
The driver, a 22-year-old Temecula man whose full name was not disclosed, was westbound in a 2004 Pontiac when he dragged the mattress some distance and then veered across the expressway west of Martin Street, California Highway Patrol officer Artemio Gonzalez said.
His Pontiac plowed into a 1991 Nissan sedan that had been headed east on the Ramona Expressway. Dispatchers received a call reporting the collision at 11:47 p.m. Friday,
Four people were trapped in the two wrecked cars, and firefighters used a hydraulic device to pry the cars open, the Riverside County Fire Department reported.
The driver of the Nissan, a 51-year-old Lakeview resident, suffered major injuries. Both he and the passenger in the Pontiac were sent to Riverside County Regional Medical Center, Gonzalez said.
The Pontiac's passenger, a 25-year-old person from Nuevo, was briefly knocked unconscious and suffered moderate injuries.
The Pontiac's driver suffered minor abrasions. He was arrested and booked for suspicion of felonious drunken driving, Gonzalez said. --City News Service
