Car carrying six teens in Friday crash

A 17-year-old Sonoma girl with five teenaged, female passengers lost control of her eastbound 1997 Volkswagen Jetta at about 11 p.m. Friday on Leveroni Road and drove into the path of a westbound BMW Z3 convertible driven by James Rich, 47, of Santa Rosa. The BMW “T-boned” the Jetta, resulting in serious injuries, mostly broken bones.
The California Highway Patrol isn’t releasing the girls’ names because of their ages.
Neither driver was drinking, said Sgt. Karen Franklin of the Napa office of the CHP.
Rich was wearing his seat belt and his air-bag deployed. The girls in the front seat were wearing their seat belts and the Jetta’s air-bags deployed, Franklin said. But the girls in the back seat may not have been.
Franklin reported the following injuries: Rich had a broken sternum and a bruised chest and was treated and released at the Sonoma Valley Hospital; the 17-year-old Jetta driver complained of shoulder pain; a 15-year-old passenger had a broken leg bone and pelvis and was taken by ambulance to Kaiser Hospital in Santa Rosa; a 15-year-old passenger was taken by ambulance to Memorial Hospital in Santa Rosa with a bruised kidney and liver, ruptured spleen, three broken ribs and seven broken vertebrae; no injury report was available for one 16-year-old; a 15-year-old was taken to Sonoma Valley Hospital with a complaint of back and neck pain and a possible fractured back.
Leveroni Road was closed until 2:30 a.m. due to the crash.
The accident was still under investigation at press time.