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Friday the 13th Part II: A SUV careened out of control Friday after the driver struck the median divider at Palm Avenue and Main Street, allegedly due to speeding. The rear right tire of the Ford Expedition was sheared off before the SUV hit fencing at the city’s Bike Path, just north of Main Street. |
Friday the 13th II: Speeding SUV hits
Main-Palm median, careens out of control
June 18, 2014
By Peggy Kelly
Santa Paula News
A speeding vehicle set off a Friday the 13th chain-reaction series of events in the mid-portion of the city, according to a Santa Paula Police spokesman who said the results could have been much worse.
Sgt. Cody Madison said the incident occurred June 13 at about 12:54 p.m.
The traffic mishap was the second that occurred on Friday the 13th.
Madison said a Ford Expedition was headed northbound on Palm Avenue traveling at “about 50 mph according to a witness and it hit the median right there at Main Street,” where motorists can turn right in an outer lane to enter Main or stay in the outside lane to either turn left or go straight.
The Ford Expedition, said Madison, “Hit that median so hard it sheared off his right rear tire,” which flew off the SUV and struck another vehicle.
The out-of-control Ford Expedition careened across Main Street and onto the Bike Path, taking out some chain link fencing before it stopped.
The driver of the Ford Expedition, 29-year-old Harry Lujan, of Santa Paula, was not injured, although Madison said the incident had the potential to hurt others.
If the tire that was sheared off Lujan’s vehicle “had hit a pedestrian instead of another vehicle,” or even gone through the windshield of the other vehicle Madison said the incident could have resulted in major injury or worse.
“Besides the tire getting sheared off there was minor damage,” to Lujan’s own and the other vehicle that was hit by the tire, but the loss of the SUV’s wheel itself could be considered moderate damage.
The incident is still under investigation.
