Davis, CA : A 31-year-old Davis woman was critically injured in a suspected drunken-driving crash on April, Saturday 29th 2017

A 31-year-old Davis woman was critically injured in a suspected drunken-driving crash Saturday night in downtown Winters, where the streets were busy with pedestrians celebrating Youth Day festivities.

Woodland resident Nicholas Anthony Kershner, 30, now faces felony DUI charges in connection with the collision and is being held on $1 million bail at the Yolo County Jail due to the extent of his passenger’s injuries.

Winters Police Chief John Miller said the woman, whose name is being withheld for now at the request of her family, suffered head trauma, internal injuries and numerous fractures in the 8:40 p.m. crash on Railroad Avenue near Grant Avenue.

A Yolo County sheriff’s deputy assisting with the Youth Day festival was the first responder on scene, arriving to find a Ford F-150 truck with major damage to its passenger side, the woman trapped in the back seat of the wreckage.

Witnesses told investigating officers that the truck had been traveling southbound on Railroad Avenue at speeds over 70 mph, ran a red light at the intersection and sideswiped a light pole.

“It literally sheared the passenger side of the vehicle off,” including the truck’s “B-frame,” which is what the seatbelt shoulder harness attaches to, Miller said in an interview Monday.

Kershner, meanwhile, was outside of the vehicle and appeared to be intoxicated when emergency personnel arrived on scene, Miller said. He reportedly had been at an event out in the county, possibly a wedding, earlier in the day.

Winters Fire Department personnel extricated the injured woman from the wreckage before she was transported to Kaiser Vacaville with what Miller described as “life-threatening injuries.”

Kershner was arrested on DUI charges and transported with minor injuries to Kaiser Vacaville, where Miller said he refused to have a blood sample drawn, requiring investigators to obtain a warrant in order to get the sample.

He is scheduled to be arraigned at 1:30 p.m. Wednesday in Yolo Superior Court.

The Davis Police Department assisted in the investigation, documenting the crash scene using a “Total Station,” a digital surveying device used in traffic collision reconstruction, Miller said.

“We are grateful no one else was hurt,” Miller said of the incident, which occurred amid numerous pedestrians and just a few blocks away from Saturday’s busy downtown nightlife. “It was bad, but it could have been a whole lot worse.”

Source :
Winters crash victim ID’d as Davis woman