Passenger was killed in Fatal Jeep Crash in Oroville California
A Jeep was traveling at high speed on a rural road when the driver lost control. The vehicle went off the road and crashed into a tree.
The Jeep was crushed. The sole passenger was killed, but the driver was ejected. He was airlifted to a nearby hospital in critical condition.
The driver was arrested for driving under the influence of drugs.
Police believe the accident occurred around 12:30 p.m., according to a report in the Oroville Mercury-Register.
California Highway Patrol investigator Steve Dubravetz said 52-year-old Paradise resident Rick Roberts was driving a Jeep Wrangler west on Coal Canyon Road when the accident happened.
A female passenger, later identified as 47-year-old Kimberly Scheler, also of Paradise, was a passenger in the vehicle.
The Jeep drifted off of the road onto the shoulder. The driver managed to get back onto the road but lost control again.
The Jeep went back off the road, plowed through a fence, and slammed into an olive tree. The vehicle was crushed.
The female passenger died on impact, Dubravetz said. The driver, who was ejected from the vehicle, found lying next to the Jeep. He sustained major, life-threatening injuries but was alive when firefighters arrived.
Paramedics airlifted the injured driver by helicopter to Enloe Medical Center in Chico, where he was listed in critical condition.
Dubravetz said Roberts was driving too fast on the road. The “crush damage” of the vehicle indicated that the impact also was at high speed.