Fatal Crash Victim ID'd As St. Helena Woman

BY BAY CITY NEWS SERVICE

The Napa County coroner's office has identified the woman who was killed in a solo vehicle crash south of Calistoga early Saturday morning as 30-year-old Gabriela Gomez of Saint Helena.

Gomez was riding without a seatbelt in the front passenger seat of a 2006 Dodge that collided with a tree on southbound state Highway 29 at Tucker Road around 4 a.m. Saturday, the California Highway Patrol said.

When the right side of the Dodge hit the tree, the impact pushed Gomez into the back seat of the Dodge, the CHP said in a news release. Cal Fire personnel pronounced her dead at the scene.

The driver of the Dodge, Bobby F. Recinos, 21, of Lower Lake in Lake County, suffered minor injuries. He was arrested on suspicion of gross vehicular manslaughter while intoxicated and DUI causing injury to another and was booked in the Napa County jail, the CHP said.

Passenger Olga Rojas, 29, of Napa, suffered moderate injuries and was taken to Queen of the Valley Medical Center, and passenger Israel Perez, 32, of Saint Helena, suffered major injuries and was taken to Santa Rosa Memorial Hospital, the CHP said.

Physical evidence, damage to the Dodge and statements of the three crash survivors indicated Recinos was speeding and failed to negotiate a sweeping right to left curve in the road before the Dodge went onto the dirt shoulder on the west side of the highway and hit the tree, the CHP said.