
LAKE COUNTY, Calif. – The California Highway Patrol issued a report Friday on a single-vehicle crash that occurred the night before, injuring a woman and her young son.
Tiffany Steptoe, 22,of Nice, and her 2-year-old son were hurt in the crash, which occurred at around 6:30 p.m. Thursday on the Nice-Lucerne Cutoff, the CHP said.
Steptoe was driving her 2001 Hyundai Accent westbound on the cutoff at about 45 miles per hour when, for reasons that are not known – in part because it was noted that Steptoe did not remember the crash – she allowed her car to turn sharply to the left, the CHP said.
The vehicle went off the roadway, striking a wire fence and running into an oak tree, the CHP reported.
The CHP's investigation found that both forward airbags in the car deployed, but neither Steptoe nor her son were wearing seatbelts.
Steptoe struck the windshield and steering wheel, suffering bruised ribs and a laceration and contusion to her head, the CHP said.
The child, which the CHP reported struck the right front door pillar post, also suffered a head contusion.
The CHP said both suffered major injuries.
Because medical personnel feared brain trauma for both mother and son, they were flown to area hospitals separately in REACH air ambulances, the CHP said.
CHP Officer Brendan Bach was the investigating officer on the crash.
The Nice-Lucerne Cutoff was the site of another crash earlier this week, when a car went off the road and into the water, and last month an elderly woman was injured in a crash that saw the other driver arrested for DUI, as Lake County News has reported.
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