Rubbernecking leads to three car pileup on Echo Summit

A three car collision on Echo Summit Saturday, April 2 was the result of one driver not paying attention to the road in front of him on the second day of what happens to be Distracted Driver Month.

The California Highway Patrol had responded to an accident on Highway 50 just west of Old Meyers Grade. As they were taking care of that incident, a Subaru Legacy driven by Ray Garcia, 48, of South Lake Tahoe was heading west when he looked to the left to observe the previous accident.

Sharon Tryhane, 59, of Folsom, was driving her Subaru Outback in the same direction, just ahead of Garcia. Driving just ahead of Tryhane was 36-year-old Alexis Midon of San Francisco who was driving a Mazda CX-5.

As Garcia was driving and his attention wasn't on the road in front of him, he failed to notice that both Tryhane and Midon had stopped because of debris from the original accident in the roadway.

The California Highway Patrol said Garcia was not only being an inattentive driver, he was also driving at an unsafe speed for the conditions. He didn't notice the two stopped cars in front of him and drove his vehicle underneath that of Tryhane, who was then forced into the Midon's car.

No one was seriously injured as a result of this collision.