Driver totaled car on logs, not trees

Thinning along Sherwin Creek Road may have caused dangerous conditions.

The Times wrote, “A woman who was driving on the Sherwin Creek Road earlier in the day and who totaled her car after hitting a bunch of trees along the road said the accident was probably her fault but she also said the ‘placement of the trees are hazardous.’ Huh?”

Upon further investigation by The Sheet, the “trees” were a massive deck of logs that stretched onto Sherwin Creek Road without any signage to warn drivers of their presence, according to the driver of the car, Betty Hylton. The section of the road on which the logs were placed is directly below the steepest incline, a stretch which is frequently covered in ice during the winter.

The area in question now boasts copious signage, and the logs in question have been moved back approximately eight feet from the road, according to witnesses to the accident scene, and verified by The Sheet.

“We did ask the contractor to pull back a little from the road based on the concern that was raised,” said USFS Public Affairs Officer Deb Schweizer, “so we figure [they moved the log deck] about three feet” from where it had been sitting.

However, photographs taken from the day of the accident and taken again from the same perspective by The Sheet show the log deck to have been moved back significantly farther. Schweizer said that California Land Management, which operates the campground as a concessionaire, contracted the thinning project to GC Forest Products. “The log decks are … a little bit of a moving target literally, because it’s an active harvest,” said Schweizer.

Schweizer also said that the Forest Service had placed signage at the area, but “we put up signage all the time and a lot of it gets pulled, so it has been re-signed and we believe it was also signed at the time but, we don’t monitor the roads 24-7…”

Photos provided by Hylton do not show any signage in the vicinity of the log deck—currently, there are hazard warnings several hundred feet from the thinning area on either side. Witnesses who helped Hylton after her accident also maintained that there were no signs posted at the time of the crash.

Many locals utilize the road frequently for driving, dog walking and running. “I know every bend in that road,” Hylton said. She was hospitalized briefly due to hitting her head on the windshield of her car.

“I know based on where she hit the deck and where her vehicle hit it, it appears she was driving on the wrong side of the road,” said Schweizer. However, according to Hylton, due to the icy and steep conditions her car slid across the road and into the deck.

GC Forest Products will continue thinning projects on Sherwin Creek Road this winter, said Schweizer.