By Alayna Shulman
The Record Searchlight
REDDING, Calif. — Police were looking Sunday for a man who they say ran away after crashing an SUV into a creek and leaving a passenger trapped in the vehicle.
The red Isuzu Rodeo landed upside down in the stream off Parkview Avenue behind Crown Motors.
By Sunday evening, officers were not able to identify the passenger or the driver of the SUV, said Redding police Sgt. Casey Bokavich.
The extent of the victim’s injuries wasn’t known. He was taken to Mercy Medical Center for treatment, Bokavich said.
The passenger was not coherent when emergency crews got him out of the SUV and into an ambulance.
The call reporting the accident came in around 12:45 p.m., and by about 1:40 p.m., the man was put into an ambulance.
Redding firefighters used two jacks and other tools to get the passenger out of the vehicle. They also had to rip off a door and break the SUV’s windshield to get him out.
Police at the scene spraypainted around skid marks in the road, indicating it was traveling down Parkview Avenue and, for unknown reasons, veered across the oncoming lane and into the stream.
Battalion Chief Steve Reilly with the Redding Fire Department said three absorption dams were placed in the creek to prevent fuel from running down the stream.
“They appear to be working fine, collecting whatever fuel was spilled,” Reilly said.
He estimated less than a gallon of fuel leaked from the vehicle into the creek.
Parkview Avenue was closed from the intersection of Freebridge Street to Smile Place for several hours because of the crash.
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