UPDATE: She's helped in wildfire rescues. It helped prepare her for terrible crash scene.
UPDATE: The driver of the Ford F-250 from Wednesday’s traffic collision has been identified as 45-year-old San Andreas resident Renee Ilene Hogan. She is still in critical but stable condition at UC Davis Intensive Care Unit.
ORIGINAL STORY FOLLOWS: Trish Berg was the right person in the right place at the right time when a terrible crash happened on Highway 49 north of Sonora on Wednesday morning.
Berg lives within earshot of the collision, which occurred just south of Springfield Road, heard it and was calling 911 as she made her way to the scene. There she saw two badly damaged vehicles — a three-axle Peterbilt dump truck and a Ford F-250 pickup — with both drivers still inside.
The dump truck driver “was honking because he wasn’t sure anyone had seen or heard the crash,” she said Thursday. He appeared OK, so she ran to check on the female driver still stuck in the pickup. “A bunch of people had seen or heard the crash and were coming down,” Berg said. “I told a couple guys that if they could pull the driver’s side door open, we’d try to pull her out.”
The driver appeared semiconscious but was not talking and was unable to respond to questions. When the door had been pulled open, Berg and a second woman were able to extract the driver.
The pickup was burning, but “the flames were really low at the time and coming through the dashboard,” Berg said. She said the threat to her and her fellower rescuer “wasn’t too bad.”
Was Berg worried about her own safety when helping extract the driver?
“Not really, because my brother is a firefighter and I do livestock rescue, I have my own response team,” she said, and has helped in incidents including this summer’s Jacksonville fire in Tuolumne County.
The pickup driver, identified as Renee Hogan 45 of San Adreas, was airlifted to the UC Davis Medical Center in Sacramento for treatment of major injuries including burns. She remained in critical but stable condition Thursday.
Faustino Pulido, public information officer for the Sonora Area CHP, credited residents and passersby with “heroically” pulling the woman from her pickup truck as flames were building.
The crash occurred about 10:15 a.m. Wednesday. The dump truck, loaded with sand, was heading north at about 45 mph, the CHP reported. The pickup, southbound at an undetermined speed, crossed over the double yellow lines and struck the truck head-on.
The driver of the dump truck, Modesto resident Larry Robinson Jr., 57, suffered minor injuries, the CHP reported.
The collision, which spilled the load of sand onto the roadway, had traffic detoured until Highway 49 reopened at about 2:50 p.m.
Pulido said drugs or alcohol are not believed to be factors in the crash.
“I know this road and how bad accidents can be on it,” Berg told The Union Democrat newspaper. “I knew it was going to be bad.”
As for being in the right place at the right time, Berg told The Bee she considers herself fortunate for more than being able to help.
“I usually leave my house at 10:10 and was getting ready to leave for work,” she said. But as she was getting into her vehicle, she heard the crash. “I almost could have been in it myself.”
This story was originally published September 21, 2017 at 9:40 AM with the headline "UPDATE: She's helped in wildfire rescues. It helped prepare her for terrible crash scene.."