Nuala Ivic (left) of Pine Mountain and her cats, who were in this Dodge Durango (top right) when a Santa Maria motorcyclist slammed into them on Mil Potrero Highway just below the ?Y.? He missed the curve. Traffic backed up on Interstate 5 on Labor Day (middle right) due to a fatal accident near El Tejon School (bottom).
By Gary Meyer and Patric Hedlund
“I could see his eyes in slow motion as he flew into my windshield,” Pine Mountain’s Nuala Ivic said at 11 a.m. Monday, Sept. 1, just minutes after motorcyclist Stephan Brannon, 53 of Santa Maria was airlifted to Kern Medical Center.
Brannon lost control of his 2008 Harley Davidson coming around a curve going westbound on Mil Potrero Highway. He hit the side of a 2008 Nissan Armada driven by visitors from Surprise, Arizona, then collided head-on with Ivic’s 2005 Dodge Durango. “He was conscious when I came to a stop. If he lives, it will be because of my cats,” Ivic said, “I was going only 30 miles per hour around those curves because the cats were in the car with me.”
Brannon was transported by Hall Ambulance to a landing zone at the Mil Potrero Y and flown to Kern Medical Center with major injuries, California Highway Patrol reports. Motorists on Mil Potrero Highway got out of their cars and visited together for half an hour while waiting for the crash to be cleared.
Not two hours later a 23 year old Bakersfield woman died when the vehicle in which she was a passenger collided with a power pole on northbound Interstate 5, at Tejon Fields, next to El Tejon School.
According to CHP reports, two vehicles attempted to enter the same lane at the same time. One, a 2005 Hyundai, over-corrected and hit the center divider, then “shot to [the] other side of [the freeway] into [the] pole.”
Shari Ann Ramey, riding in the left-rear seat without a seat belt, was pronounced deceased at the scene. The driver, 24 year old Anthony Watson, of Bakersfield was transported to Kern Medical Center by ground ambulance with moderate injuries.
CHP Officer M. Love asks anyone with information about this incident to contact Fort Tejon Area CHP at (661) 248-6655.
On Tuesday, Sept. 2 at 1:47 p.m. a big rig trailer “came loose,” according to CHP reports and blocked southbound lanes number one and two of Interstate 5 at the Kern County and Los Angeles County line. No injuries were reported.
Twenty-five minutes later at 2:12 p.m. several vehicles were reported to be involved in a collision on Interstate 5 just north of Lebec Road. A gray Ford Excursion rolled over and came to rest blocking the number one lane at the center divider. Ambulances responded and a cat from within one of the vehicles was taken to Mettler fire station.
This is part of the September 05, 2008 online edition of The Mountain Enterprise.
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