NC Crash Victim in Fair Condition

Emergency personnel help the injured after 32-year-old Tari Stites of Nevada City rolled her Jeep Wrangler off the Golden Center Freeway. (Photo by John Hart)

A 32-year-old Nevada City woman was in fair condition at Sutter Roseville Medical Center Sunday after her vehicle rolled off the Golden Center Freeway, the California Highway Patrol reported.

Tari L. Stites was traveling eastbound on the freeway at 4 p.m. Saturday just west of the Gold Flat exit when she failed to negotiate a curve in the road, said CHP officer Greg Thys. She was traveling approximately 55 mph when her Jeep Wrangler veered off the roadway and crashed into the exit sign, ripping the sign from the ground. The Jeep then ran into a tree and rolled 14 feet down an embankment before coming to a stop upside down, partially on top of Stites, Thys said.

Stites and a passenger, Richard K. Earnst, 44, of Grass Valley, who were not wearing seat belts at the time, were ejected from the vehicle. A third passenger, a 9-year-old Garden Valley boy who was wearing a seat belt in the back seat, was not injured.

Earnst and the youth declined medical attention at the scene of the accident, Thys said.

The linkage from the steering wheel to the Jeep's driveshaft might have broken, resulting in Stites' inability to navigate the highway curve near the exit, according to a preliminary CHP investigation.

[Consolidated, Grass Valley, Nevada City, and 49er Fire Departments responded]

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