Officers of the California Highway Patrol arrested a woman on suspicions of driving under the influence of alcohol after her pickup truck swayed off the freeway and rolled down an embankment along Trabing Road in Santa Cruz County, California. The single-vehicle crash took place just after noon on Monday, March 16.
According to the CHP, the drunk driver, whose identity was revealed as 46-year-old Maia Cahill of Watsonville, was traveling north on Trabing Road in a 1998 Ford F-150 when her vehicle suddenly drifted off the road to the edge of an embankment. The Ford rolled down the barrier, halting at the shoulder of the northbound traffic lanes on Highway 1 at about 12:20 pm.
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The single passenger in the ford, a 51-year-old Watsonville resident, who was not restrained at the time, was expelled from the overturning vehicle before it came to rest.
Although the male victim survived the crash, he sustained severe injuries in the traffic accident. The driver emerged from the almost fatal incident unharmed.
Paramedics responding at the crash site transported the injured passenger to the Natividad Medical center for treatment. Investigators determined the driver was intoxicated after she failed field sobriety tests.
The drunk driver was charged with DUI causing injuries and was booked into the Santa Cruz County jail, with a bail term of $25,000.
Following the accident, the northbound traffic lanes on Highway 1 were closed for hours as the highway patrol collected the necessary on-site information to facilitate further investigations into the accident.
