Road Condition Alert: Car Rolls on Mil Potrero Highway–Please Drive Carefully

PINE MOUNTAIN (February 5, 2011, 7:30 p.m.)—A car driving about 30 miles per hour on Mil Potrero Highway on curving turns west of Yellowstone "caught cinders" tonight and flipped over, a California Highway Patrol Officer said. The accident happened about 6:40 p.m. Cars were held back in the eastbound lanes while the accident was cleaned up.

Jassmone Martin, 23 was driving east on her way to Frazier Park when the accident occurred. The car flipped upside down in the eastbound lane. Martin is uninjured, though the car wheels were in the air and the vehicle’s roof was crushed in.

"We always wear our seat belts, and drive safely," Martin said. CHP Officer Matt Barnachia said two-wheel-drive vehicles are at risk on mountain curves when cinders have been dusted on the road due to ice a week earlier.

"There doesn’t have to be ice still on the road, the cinders can make you skid unless you are driving very, very slowly on these curves," Barnachia said.

This is part of the February 04, 2011 online edition of The Mountain Enterprise.

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