Driver apparently walks away from Stanislaus crash scene. Driving sure wasn’t an option
Just after 6 p.m. Wednesday, Modesto area California Highway Patrol officers responded to a report of a vehicle that had crashed into an almond orchard and struck a tree, about 10 miles west of Keyes. A caller or callers said a woman was trying to flag down traffic at the scene, on Jennings Road just south of Keyes Road, near a city of Modesto wastewater treatment facility.
The CHP requested American Medical Response also go to the scene, Officer Ming Hsu said by phone Thursday morning. But when officers and EMS workers arrived, they found only a 2009 Honda Accord standing on its crunched front end, its back end held up by the tree’s trunk and limbs. The woman was not there.
Hsu said the car is registered to an Oakdale owner and had not been reported stolen. He said it’s possible the investigating officer has contacted the owner and presumed driver. He said there were no obvious signs of injury at the scene.
A woman who commented on the Modesto CHP office’s Facebook post about the incident said her husband happened upon the crash and spoke with the driver, whose face was bloody.
“He told her he would call 911 but she didn’t want him to and asked for a ride into town,” Angelina Barrientos wrote. “He was hesitant and told her he would stay until the police got there.”
The driver again refused his offer to call police and an ambulance, and she walked away, Barrientos said.
She said her husband spoke with the orchard owners, who were on scene and said the driver also refused their offer to call 911. “Apparently she didn’t want police there. The woman was alright and didn’t seem in serious condition,” Barrientos wrote.
