Santa Rosa,CA : Dump truck driver in fiery Santa Rosa crash reported brake failure on February, Monday 5th 2018

The driver of a dump truck that caused a fiery 10-vehicle pileup Monday morning while hauling debris from Santa Rosa’s fire-ravaged Fountaingrove neighborhood told investigators his brakes failed, police officials said Wednesday.

However, Santa Rosa Police Sgt. Chad Heiser said investigators have yet to rule brake failure as the official cause of the wreck, which left seven people injured — three critically.

The accident has slowed cleanup from October’s wildfires, as every truck in the local debris removal effort had to undergo brake inspections.

Around 200 trucks hauled debris from burned lots in Sonoma County Wednesday, down from about 500 trucks on the road Monday before the 9:25 a.m. accident torched six vehicles, said Rich Gioscia, a vice president with ECC, a Burlingame-based government contractor working to clear burned residential lots.

ECC suspended cleanup Monday at the request of the Army Corps of Engineers to perform brake inspections on every truck in the fleet and review safety protocols with drivers. Hauling operations resumed Tuesday but won’t be back to full capacity until the end of the week, Gioscia said.

The crash at the intersection of Mendocino Avenue and Fountain Grove Parkway is being investigated by the Santa Rosa Police Department with help from the California Highway Patrol.

The speed of the vehicle, the weight of the load in the truck and what led driver Francisco Alberto Rodriguez, 45, of Sunnyvale to lose control are still unknown, Heiser said.

Rodriguez had a valid commercial driver’s license, was not under the influence of drugs or alcohol and had only been working for a few hours at the time of the incident, Heiser said. He is cooperating with police and told detectives in his initial interview that he lost his brakes coming down the hill.

In terms of commercial and moving violations, “the only thing we know for sure is that the dump truck went through a red light,” Heiser said.

The three Sonoma County residents who were critically injured in the accident remain in the intensive care unit at Santa Rosa Memorial Hospital, according to family and hospital officials.


Two of the victims, Linda Holden, 64, of Healdsburg and Cheryl Strong, 72, of Windsor, have had their conditions upgraded from critical to fair, said Memorial Hospital spokeswoman Vanessa DeGier.

Cheryl Strong underwent surgery on Wednesday afternoon, said her husband, Bill Strong. “She came out of it pretty good, but she’s still in an induced coma. … But the doctors seem to think that she’s headed in the right direction.”

Holden’s husband, Ralph Holden, said Wednesday that his wife is “definitely getting better” and was able to talk a little bit Wednesday. Hospital staff is attentive and another surgery is planned for Friday.

Barbara Schmidt, 76, who’s 2017 Ford F150 was the first vehicle struck by the 2009 Kenworth dump truck driven by Rodrigue, remains in critical condition with little improvement, said Schmidt’s spouse, Nikki Winovich.

“We’re kind of in a wait-and-see mode,” Winovich said.

Winovich said that Wednesday she visited the lot of the home she and Schmidt lost in the Tubbs fire and saw many dump trucks in and around the Fountaingrove neighborhood. Their home was located on Riebli Road, just north of Fountaingrove.

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Dump truck driver in fiery Santa Rosa crash reported brake failure